In June the average prudential balanced portfolio returned -0.95% (May: -1.01%). Top performer is Momentum (-0.44%); while Namibia Asset Management (-1.52%) takes the bottom spot. For the 3 month period Allan Gray takes top spot, outperforming the ‘average’ by roughly 1.4%. On the other end of the scale Stanlib underperformed the ‘average’ by 0.7%.
The beauty of prudential balanced portfolios
Looking at the performance of prudential balanced portfolios from another perspective, namely their performance relative to that of the local equity market (JSE Allshare Index), where equities are typically the preferred asset class with the highest expected returns over the long-term, the following table also reveals interesting results for periods to 30 June 2015:
| Period to June 2015 |
Equity Return %
|
Average Fund Return %
|
| 3 months |
- 0.7
|
0.4
|
| 6 months |
4.1
|
6.0
|
| 1 year |
1.7
|
10.2
|
| 3 years |
15.4
|
17.2
|
| 5 years |
14.6
|
15.5
|
| 10 years |
13.9
|
14.7
|
| 15 years |
13.5
|
17.1
|
This table shows that over all periods in the table from 3 months to 15 years, the average prudential balanced portfolio managed to outperform the JSE Allshare Index. Most local individual investors will find it very difficult to achieve the returns that the average prudential portfolio has achieved. As the above tables show, had he been invested in cash, the winning asset class for the latest quarter, he would have had the lowest returns for the past 12 months. Had he been in property the winning asset class for the past year, he would have had the lowest return for the latest quarter.