The median manager in the “balanced universe” of Swiss pension funds monitorerd by WM returned 3.9 percent in the second quarter, up from 2.3 percent in the previous quarter.
This compares with benchmark returns of 4.5 percent for the WM Performance Services Swiss Balanced Benchmark (formerly InterSec Balanced Benchmark/IBB) and 3.7 percent for the Pictet BVG/LPP index.
WM Performance Services tracks selected Swiss pension fund portfolios spanning a representative range of sizes and asset managers.
“The second quarter saw the best quarterly results for the Swiss Universe in the last 24 months,” says Peter Leutenegger, Vice President, Marketing and Sales of WM Performance Services in Zurich. “This very positive result, which is roughly in line with the corresponding indices, reflects the current upward trend in the market. The underperformance of 0.6 percent versus the benchmark can be attributed to stock selection, as was the case with similar underperformance in the first quarter.”
The same positive trends could be seen in WM Performance Services’ two specialist mandate universes as well. In the Swiss Equities universe, the median manager achieved a return of 6.1 percent, up 1.2 percent from the previous quarter but slightly underperforming the SPI index return (6.6 percent). In the International Equities universe, the median manager posted a return of 7.2 percent versus the corresponding MSCI World Index of 8.0 percent for the quarter.