The Best and Worst Funds for April

Investors had to take a passage to India to get to the top of TheStreet.com Ratings' best-performing mutual funds list for April.

The top two spots on the mutual fund leader board for the month were occupied by the Matthews (MINDX Quote - Cramer on MINDX - Stock Picks)India Fund (MINDX) and the Eaton Vance (ETGIX Quote - Cramer on ETGIX - Stock Picks)Greater India Fund (ETGIX).

These were also the only two funds to ratchet up double-digit gains -- 12.37% and 11.65% respectively (leveraged and "inverse" funds excluded).

But aside from the two Indian funds, the leaders list (table below) was dominated by biotech and health care funds.

The top-performing of these were the Franklin (FBDIX Quote - Cramer on FBDIX - Stock Picks)Biotechnology Discovery A (FBDIX), Fidelity ( FPHAX Quote - Cramer on FPHAX - Stock Picks)Select Pharmaceuticals (FPHAX) and Eaton Vance (ETHSX Quote - Cramer on ETHSX - Stock Picks)WW Health Sciences A (ETHSX) funds, which gained 9.91%, 9.37% and 9.27% respectively for the month.

But as has been the case in recent months, international investing was a two-way street in April. While Indian funds fared well, as did a Nordic and Israeli fund that made its way onto our leaders list, four of April's worst performers focus on the Japanese market.

The Credit Suisse (WPJAX Quote - Cramer on WPJAX - Stock Picks)Japan Equity Fund (WPJAX) was down 3.44% for the month, the Fidelity (FJSCX Quote - Cramer on FJSCX - Stock Picks)Japan Small Companies Fund (FJSCX) slipped 3.73%, the JPMorgan (CVJAX Quote - Cramer on CVJAX - Stock Picks)Japan Fund (CVJAX) was down 3.25%, and the Goldman Sachs (GSJSX Quote - Cramer on GSJSX - Stock Picks)Japanese Equity Fund (GSJSX) gave up 3.17%.

In addition to negative returns for the month of April, all the laggards in the table below remain underwater for the year to date. Six suffered negative returns for the most recent 12 months.

Mutual Fund Leaders for April
Name, Ticker, TheStreet.com Ratings Grade*	Objective	1-Month Total Return (%)	Year-to-Date Return (%)	12-Month Total Return (%)	3-Year Annual Return (%)
Matthews India Fund (MINDX) U	Non-US Equity	12.37	7.57	21.76	N/A
Eaton Vance Greater India A (ETGIX) C-	Non-US Equity	11.65	5.10	12.16	34.76
Franklin Biotechnology Discovery A (FBDIX) E-	Health/Biotechnology	9.91	8.47	14.40	6.61
Fidelity Select Pharmaceuticals (FPHAX) D	Health/Biotechnology	9.37	10.99	15.25	11.23
Eaton Vance WW Health Sciences A (ETHSX) E	Health/Biotechnology	9.27	8.40	11.20	5.66
Fidelity Nordic Fund (FNORX) A-	Non-US Equity	9.03	14.40	27.05	33.22
Fidelity Select Biotech Port (FBIOX) E-	Health/Biotechnology	8.74	3.83	8.13	4.82
Kinetics Medical Fund NL (MEDRX) C	Health/Biotechnology	8.68	14.46	20.28	11.25
Fidelity Adv Biotechnology A (FBTAX) E-	Health/Biotechnology	8.67	3.94	7.90	4.42
Amidex 35 Israel Fund Fd (AMDEX) B-	Non-US Equity	8.17	14.63	20.51	17.38
* U is unrated. Source: TheStreet.com Ratings (Data as of April 30, 2007).

Mutual Fund Laggards for April
Name, Ticker, TheStreet.com Ratings Grade*	Objective	1-Month Total Return (%)	Year-to-Date Return (%)	12-Month Total Return (%)	3-Year Annual Return (%)
ING VP Small Company Portfolio I (N/A) C	Small Cap	-12.39	-8.76	-7.42	10.64
ING VP Strt Alloc Gr Port Cl I (N/A) C-	Asset Allocation - Domestic	-4.45	-3.17	2.93	9.38
ING VP Balanced Portfolio Inc I (N/A) D+	Balanced - Domestic	-3.91	-2.80	2.97	6.84
Ancora Bancshares Class D (ANBDX) D-	Financial Services	-3.86	-8.46	-3.83	1.16
ING VP Strt Alloc Consv Port I (N/A) D	Asset Allocation - Domestic	-3.86	-2.66	2.33	5.81
Fidelity Japan Small Companies (FJSCX) E-	Non-US Equity	-3.73	-5.38	-22.25	2.29
Credit Suisse Japan Equity Adv (WPJAX) E	Non-US Equity	-3.44	-6.52	-18.17	3.28
ING VP Strt Alloc Mod Port Cl I (N/A) D+	Asset Allocation - Domestic	-3.36	-2.22	3.60	7.91
JPMorgan Japan Fund A (CVJAX) E	Non-US Equity	-3.25	-3.83	-12.73	9.10
Goldman Sachs Japanese Equity Svc (GSJSX) D-	Non-US Equity	-3.17	-2.62	-9.16	10.30
* U is unrated. Source: TheStreet.com Ratings (Data as of April 30, 2007).