In Wednesday's Wall Street Journal Fund Track, Sam Mamudi zeroes in on health-care funds, which have bested other sector funds so far this year. Health-care funds are up 2.8 percent, making them the only domestic-stock fund sector besides technology in the black.

Mamudi attributes the performance of health-care stocks to a slew of factors including steady demand, solid earnings and expectations of an uptick in M&A action.

The health-care sector has long been considered defensive, but it's noteworthy that the sector has performed well while other traditionally defensive sectors felt the pinch of the broader market downturn, Mamudi writes.

Among those quoted in the article are Dean Kartsonas, who runs the Federated Capital Appreciation Fund; Vijay Shankaran, manager of the Touchstone Healthcare and Biotechnology Fund; Rose Ott, manager of the Alger Health Sciences Fund; Bartlett Geer, manager of the Putnam Equity Income Fund and Morningstar analyst Christopher Davis. 

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