Retirement fund portfolio managers have practically abandoned new technology stocks and have embraced the traditional safe haven of gold over the past 12 months, according to Absa Consultants and Actuaries.
The Absa Consultants and Actuaries quarterly survey on the performance of fund managers for the period ending 30 June was released today. It surveys 108 portfolios that control about R170 billion worth of retirement funds.
"It is interesting to note that gold shares and information technology shares had an almost equal weight of around 4% in the index at the end of June 2001," says Coenraad de Jager, Absa Consultants and Actuaries executive director. "However, as a result of the depreciation of the rand, coupled with the run in the dollar gold price and the continued sell-off of information technology shares, gold shares now constitute more than 10% of the index."
De Jager says this is 10 times more than information technology shares, now representing only 1% of the index. It was also the first quarter for some time in which it was beneficial for asset managers to have been underweight in large-cap resource shares in general.
Oasis was rated the top performer over one year with a return of 31.9% per annum. The portfolio has R1.6 billion worth of assets under management.
Second place went to Foord Asset Management with a return of 24.9% per annum over a one-year period. However, the portfolio has only R174 million worth of assets under management.
The third best overall performer over one year was Allan Gray with a return of 23.0% per annum and R13.2 billion worth of assets under management.
Foord Asset Management was rated as the number one performer over a three-year period with returns of 32.5% per annum to the end of June 2002.
Runner-up over three years was Allan Gray, which produced a 32.2% return per annum, while third place went to Oasis with a return of 29.7% per annum.
Foord Asset Management ranked best performer over the five-year period with an annual return of 27.4%. Second was Allan Gray with an annual return of 27.1%. Third in the five-year category was Prudential Segregated with a return of 18.1% per annum.
Allan Gray achieved the best investment yield in the longer 10-year investment period. It returned 23.5% per annum.
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