Superannuation funds have been hit by difficult investment conditions, with the median Balanced fund falling 0.4 per cent during April. Despite the fall, the wide range of assets within Balanced funds helped quarantine even greater losses during the month.
Australian shares were down for the second consecutive month, with the ASX200 Accumulation Index recording a 1.7 per cent fall in April, while the Australian Listed Property Index also fell 1.0 per cent. International shares, however, increased 2.4 per cent (the MSCI World Ex-Australia Net TR Index) but a 4.5 per cent rise in the Australian dollar against the US dollar wiped out the increase and pushed the result into the red.
“Despite the loss for Balanced funds, it was still a good result compared with the falls across all major asset classes in April” SuperRatings founder Jeff Bresnahan said. The wide range of assets in a Balanced portfolio are doing exactly the job they are designed to do, spreading the risk and protecting members savings during challenging investment conditions,’’ Mr Bresnahan said.
“Losses across higher-risk options ranged up to 1.6 per cent during the month. Even the traditionally low risk fixed-interest markets fell during April because of a major sell off in international bond markets,” he said.
| Period | Accumulation returns | Pension returns |
| The Month of April 2015 | – 0.4% | – 0.4% |
| Rolling 1 year return to 30 April 2015 | + 10.6% | + 11.6% |
| Rolling 3 year return to 30 April 2015 | + 12.0% p.a. | + 13.1% p.a. |
| Rolling 5 year return to 30 April 2015 | + 8.6% p.a. | + 10.0% p.a. |
| Rolling 7 year return to 30 April 2015 | + 5.6% p.a. | + 6.5% p.a. |
| Rolling 10 year return to 30 April 2015 | + 6.9% p.a. | + 7.5% p.a. |
| Source: SuperRatings |
Source: SuperRatings
