Previous Fiscal Year Hit Shareholders Hard

The Australian share fund has been underperforming, as the global financial crisis continue to affect the economy.

In the last five years, the median performance continued to decline at the rate of 3.1 percent.  And as the country enjoyed double-digit share returns in the past, the last financial year’s losses fell to about 6.9 percent of its median performance while fund managers’ performance fell to seven percent.

According to Mercer, which gathered all these figures, the performance of fund managers was important to the allocation of billions of funds and retirement savings from superannuation benefits.

Share funds from overseas were also affected and posted negative returns. Stocks investments, meanwhile, fell to only about 1.4 percent, which analysts deemed as better and beneficial for long-term investors.

Investors Mutual Limited was one of the top performers for the last fiscal year, as the company exceeded benchmarks by at least 9 percent and consistently met returns over 10.7 percent for the last three years.  The company’s strategy relied on proper selection of stock investments, while avoiding what others call as “value traps” by other companies.

Investors Mutual Limited’s head Anton Tagliaferro said that they have steered clear from cyclical stocks. He added that they remained with companies that have a solid growth record despite hard times.

The Bennelong Concentrated Australian Equities, on the other hand, delivered the highest returns at 12.4 percent in the last fiscal year. Bennelong chief Paul Cuddy admits that their company is bias to high-quality investments that deliver returns way beyond the expectations.

Legg Mason Australian Value Equity Trust is one of the underperformers this year with its returns falling to 14.5 percent, while Independent Asset Management continued to slide at 27.4 percent.

Media, retail and energy stocks were poor investments for this last fiscal year, while healthcare and Telstra did better.