A strong first quarter has seen default superannuation fund options close in on their pre-global financial crisis highs, according to data from Chant West and SuperRatings.
Chant West analysed funds with a 61 to 80 per cent allocation to ‘growth’ style assets and found the median default fund was up 6.1 per cent for the first quarter of 2012.
"The median growth fund has returned a healthy 33.5 per cent since markets bottomed in February 2009, and now only needs another 2.5 per cent to get back to the pre-GFC peak reached at the end of October 2007," said Chant West director Warren Chant.
Once that psychological barrier is passed, "people will really start to believe that the GFC era is over," Chant added.
During the month of March, default funds returned 1.6 per cent and "are now up 2.3 per cent for the financial year to date," according to Chant.
Similar research by SuperRatings – which looked at funds with a 60 to 76 per cent allocation to growth assets – found the median return for the three months to 31 March 2012 was 5.72 per cent. The median fund was up 1.49 per cent in March, SuperRatings found.
The "stellar" result for the first quarter of 2012 was even more impressive given "the March quarter wasn’t without its bouts of turbulence," stated the SuperRatings report.
The report pointed to concerns about a slowdown in Chinese economic growth and continuing sovereign debt woes in Europe.
"We expect that such uncertainty will remain with us for the rest of the year, however, we have already seen that confidence and performance have been resilient," SuperRatings stated.
Master trusts comfortably outpaced industry funds over the March quarter through a higher weighting to listed shares and property, returning 6.8 per cent against 5.7 per cent.
Master trusts are also in front over three years, returning 10.3 per cent compared to 8.9 per cent, although industry funds are still in front over 10 years by 5.9 per cent against 4.6 per cent.
