Growth funds continue to surge
By Lucie Beaman
THE continued recovery of the Australianshare market boosted manager performance again in February, with growth managers continuing their upward trend,according toInTech .
While all managers delivered positivereturns for the month,Invesco topped thelist returning 2.6 per cent, followed byPerpetual Investments with 2.5 per cent andBT Financial Group with 2 per cent.
BT led the one-year performance for theyear ending February 29, after returning21.9 per cent over the period, followed byBGI and Perpetual, both at 18.6 per cent.
During February, the median growthmanager gained 1.7 per cent to return 8.1per cent for the financial year to date.
The results can be attributed to the continued strong returns on Australian shares,with growth funds allocating an average ofalmost 40 per cent to Australian shares.
As the strongest performing asset classfor February, the sharemarket gained 3.2per cent for the month to be up 13.9 percent for the financial year to date,enhancing growth fund returns over theperiod.
According to InTech senior consultantCorrin Collocott, relatively stable marketsover the next few months will deliver strongreturns for the majority of super funds,which“may go some way to restoring public confidence in superannuation”.
Listed property trusts also producedstrong returns for February, increasing by2.9 per cent, InTech says.
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