Listed shares see retail funds outperform

Retail funds outperformed their industry fund counterparts in February on the back of a better performance by listed shares and property, according to the latest data released by Chant West.

According to the Chant West research, retail funds edged out industry funds in February returning 1.2 per cent (versus 1.1 per cent for industry funds), with Chant West principal, Warren Chant, pointing out that industry funds continued to hold the advantage over the longer term, having returned 5.5 per cent per annum against 4.5 per cent for retail funds over the 10 years to February 2017.

Commenting on the research, Chant said that after a flat January, super funds had a better month in February with the median growth fund (61 to 80 per cent growth assets) up 1.2 per cent, bringing the return over the first eight months of the 2017 financial year to a healthy 6.8 per cent.

The analysis said all major asset sectors delivered positive returns in February, led by listed shares and property with Australian shares advancing 2.2 per cent while international shares were up 3.1 per cent in hedged terms but, with the continuing appreciation of the Australian dollar (up from US$0.76 to US$0.77 over the month) this reduced to 1.5 per cent in unhedged terms.

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It said listed property also delivered strong returns, with Australian and global REITs up 4.1 per cent and 3.3 per cent, respectively.

“Growth funds have performed better than expected this financial year,” Chant said. “With share markets up further so far in March, we estimate that growth funds are up more than 7.5 per cent over the financial year to date.”

He said that with just over one quarter remaining, there was a good chance that they would deliver an eighth consecutive positive financial year return.

“This is particularly impressive given the economic and political uncertainty that has been prevalent over the past few years,” Chant said.