Australian equities shining bright
The Australian share market continues to be an impressive performer for investors, with the latest Intech research showing the S&P/ASX 200 Accumulation Index produced a total return of 2 per cent for the month of August.
This result follows the market’s strong start to the financial year, which saw it post a 2.6 per cent return in July.
The Intech report also showed Australian equities provided a return of 30.5 per cent per annum for the last year and 17.5 per cent per annum for the past three years.
“The numbers are certainly much higher than we would be expecting as a long-term average. The one year number is especially high … and obviously not sustainable,” Michael Coops, Intech head of capital markets research, said.
Coops estimated the long-term average return for the share market to be around 6 per cent after inflation, which means domestic equities have provided outstanding value over the past three years.
The research also measured the performance of just over 50 Australian share fund managers and found they were able to produce alpha for their clients, with the median fund outperforming the index by 1.7 per cent over the past year.
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