Australian listed property investments made a turnaround last month, posting a 5.5 per cent return after a lacklustre -0.7 per cent return in March, according to Morningstar's interim results for the Australian Institutional Sector survey to 30 April 2012.
Listed property returned 6.9 per cent for the year, while the best listed property performers in March 2012 were APN (10 per cent), Perennial (9.1 per cent) and SGH (8.7 per cent), according to Morningstar.
The International sharemarket experienced a downturn in April, with the MSCI World ex-Australia NR Index posting a -1.7 per cent return for April compared with 5.8 per cent in March.
The best performers for international share strategies over the year to 30 April 2012 were Magellan (23.7 per cent), Wingate (9.9 per cent), and Principal (9.5 per cent).
The Australian share market recorded the fourth consecutive month of positive returns with 1.3 per cent.
Value stocks vastly outperformed growth stocks over the year to 30 April 2012, with the S&P/ASX300 Accumulation Index recording 10 per cent for the calendar year-to-date to the end of April.
Allan Grey and Hyperion posted the best returns for large-cap Australian share strategies during April, although Bennelong Concentrated, Investors Mutual and Dalton Nicol Reid Income have been the best performers over the year.
Macquarie True Index, AMP, and Perpetual were frontrunners among Australian fixed income strategies, with the UBS Bond Index returning 1.6 per cent for April and 11.2 per cent for the year.
New research has shown that investing in alternative assets and using active management has, to this point, delivered strong results for Australian super funds.
Australia’s $4 trillion superannuation industry is fundamentally reshaping the nation’s external accounts, setting the stage for a more sustainable current account surplus despite weaker commodity markets.
Rest has expanded its portfolio of renewable energy infrastructure by supporting a Victorian solar farm and battery project.
Economic growth was weaker than expected, once again highlighting an economy largely sustained by population growth and government spending.