A pick-up in global and domestic sharemarkets may secure double digit returns for Australian superannuation fund members in 2004-05.
That is the bottom line of the latest data provided by Intech Investment Consultants which shows that growth-oriented superannuation funds bounced back in May after recording two months of negative returns meaning they are now poised to deliver double digit returns for the financial year.
The Intech data showed that the median growth manager returned 2.4 per cent in May, taking the financial year to date result to 10.5 per cent.
This prompted Intech’s senior consultant, Andrew Korbel to suggest that if results held up during June, a second successive year of double digit returns was possible.
However, he cautioned that these double digit returns had to be weighed against the negative returns of previous years.
“It is important to keep in mind that these results are in effect a pay back from the bleak times a few years back and that a more normal return would be around 7 per cent a year,” he said.
Korbel said that the May result had been driven by a range of good news including higher global sharemarkets, relatively stable oil prices and a rally in bond yields.
He said unhedged international shares had returned 4.9 per cent for the month with hedged international shares and Australian shares returning 3.6 per cent and 3.3 per cent respectively.
Intech listed the top financial year to date performers as being Perpetual with a return of 13.2 per cent, Invesco with 12.8 per cent and AMP Balanced Growth with 21.1 per cent.
