Morningstar found that while the S&P/ASX300 Index recorded a 2.2 per cent return for the month, bringing the market return for the previous three months to 10.3 per cent, but other growth assets were “not as impressive”.
“The median Australian share fund manager outperformed the index by 0.6 per cent with a 2.8 per cent return for September,” Morningstar found.
However, international shares returned 5.8 per cent over the three months to September 30, Australian listed property 0.1 per cent, and global property returned -0.1 per cent.
The best-performing Australian share strategies over the year to 30 September were Millinium (46.3 per cent), Bennelong Concentrated (44.8 per cent), and Hyperion (41.9 per cent).
In the superannuation space, the median growth fund recorded a solid 5.5 per cent return of the first quarter of the financial year, and 1.4 per cent for the month of September.
“Quarterly results ranged from a high of 8.5 per cent to a low of 3.3 per cent,” Morningstar said.
Growth super funds’ average allocation to equities at August 31 was 56.6 per cent, with 20.9 per cent Australian and 25.7 per cent global.
Morningstar found most growth assets produced positive returns in September, with global listed property returning 4.5 per cent, Australian shares 2.2 per cent, and Australian listed property 1.0 per cent. The only negative sector return among superannuation options was international shares, down 0.1 per cent in Australian dollar terms.
The median growth funds' longer-term annualised returns were 17.2 per cent (one year), 9.7 per cent (three years), 6.1 per cent (five years), and 6.9 per cent (10 years to 30 September 2013).
The best-performing growth super funds over the year to 30 September 2013 were Legg Mason Growth (28.4 per cent), Legg Mason Balanced (25.3 per cent), and Maple-Brown Abbott (21.1 per cent).
