Australian share fund managers post solid year

The median Australian share fund manager outperformed the index by 0.3 per cent, returning 20 per cent over the 2012 calendar year, according to interim results from the Morningstar Australian Institutional Sector Survey.

Local share fund managers also outperformed the median international share fund manager, who produced a 14.9 per cent return over the year, 2.4 per cent over the month and 2.1 per cent over the three years to 31 December 2012, the report found.

With Australian shares up 19.7 per cent, the top-performing Australian strategies over the 12 months to 31 December were Dalton Nicol Reid Income (30 per cent), Hyperion 300 (29 per cent) and Hyperion (26.6 per cent).

The findings come against a background of solid performance across all other growth assets over the calendar year, with international shares up 14.1 per cent, Australian real estate investment trusts (A-REITs) up 33 per cent and global property up 26.3 per cent.

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Australian shares in particular performed strongly, with positive results for the 12 months, except for negative results in May. The results are also up from the 11 per cent loss recorded in 2011 and 1.5 per cent return for 2010, Morningstar stated.

While healthcare (47.5 per cent), telecommunications services (42.1 per cent) and A-REITs (32.8 per cent) stocks posted positive results locally, energy (-0.6 per cent), resources (0.1 per cent) and materials (2.7 per cent) performed weaker.

The best performers in the Australian property securities sector over the year were Legg Mason (42.1 per cent), followed by Zurich (37.5 per cent) and Principal (36.7 per cent).

Among Australian fixed income strategies, AMP Capital Corporate Bond (11.4 per cent), Legg Mason (10.8 per cent) and Perennial (10.6 per cent) returned the strongest results.