As the final quarter of FY19 gets underway, aggressive and growth options unsurprisingly offered members the best returns for the March quarter, as all superannuation offerings look to end a FY characterised by uncertain market conditions and an unexpected December slump strongly.
While returns of 8.32 and 7.09 per cent respectively for Mixed Asset Aggressive and Mixed Asset Growth sectors led the pack for the March quarter, data from FE Analytics suggests that this barely made up for the disappointing December quarter. With returns of -7.47 and -4.1 each for that period, it’s little wonder that even their strong March quarter returns saw the performance of the Aggressive sector rise to just 0.23 and the Growth to 0.9 for the six months to March’s end.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Mixed Asset Cautious and Moderate sectors offered the most protection throughout FY19 as we head into its final quarter. The problematic December quarter only saw the sectors’ admittedly defensively-focused investments deliver relatively better returns of -1.3 and -2.07 respectively, which they backed up with recoveries of 2.98 and 3.75 per cent each for the March quarter.
The Mixed Asset Flexible and Balanced sectors occupied a middle ground for the FY to date, in contrast to their longer term returns where they either outperformed their growth and aggressive counterparts or came close to it. The Flexible sector returned 6.34 per cent for the March quarter and the Balanced 5.58 per cent, recovering strongly from December quarter returns of -4.87 and -4.1 per cent respectively. The chart below shows the returns of each sector for the March quarter.
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Source: FE Analytics
As the final quarter for the FY gets underway, FE Analytics suggests that these positions may change for aggressive and flexible, rather than growth, options to come out on top. They each returned 1.29 and 1.28 respectively for the month to 12 April, this year. The Growth sector offered investors 1.15 per cent over that period and the remaining three, including the most heavily-invested in Balanced sector, which covers most MySuper options, all delivered under one per cent.
