If selected carefully, global mutual funds have the potential to offer secure and attractive investment opportunities. Different studies over the years have shown that a portfolio with both domestic and foreign securities help in reducing risk while enhancing returns. Also, a steady decline in the US equity markets’ share in the global stock market capitalization has made investors think about diversifying their investments throughout the globe.

Separately, slowdown in the Chinese and Japanese economies, and deflationary fears in the Euro zone forced the central banks of these countries to opt for an intensified economic stimulus including rate cuts and a monetary easing program. Since most of the developed economies are thriving on easy money, these are thus acting as lucrative investment propositions.

Meanwhile, an indication of a slowdown in the U.S. economy in the third quarter and weak labor market data abated rate hike fears in recent times and the prospective timeline has shifted to the end of 2015 or early 2016. In this scenario, one may consider global mutual funds to take advantage of these opportunities. Though cheap money inflows set the stage for the bulls globally, investors need to be selective while playing this field, given the heightened uncertainty.

Below we share with you five top-rated, global mutual funds. Each has earned a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is expected to outperform its peers in the future. To view the Zacks Rank and past performance of all global mutual funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of global funds .

Hartford Global Growth HLS IA (HIALX – MF report) maintains a diversified portfolio of securities, primarily common stocks, issued across different countries, including the U.S. HIALX invests a minimum of 65% of its assets in securities of companies having an impressive growth prospect. HIALX may invest not more than one-fourth of its assets in securities from emerging nations. The Hartford Global Growth HLS IA fund has a year-to-date return of 9.8%.