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In our latest Investment Update, we give you a quarterly performance recap, an update on market news and volatility, and showcase one approach we’ve taken towards investing in AI.
investment excellence
All Super and Income Stream ready-made options have delivered strong returns over the 12 months to quarter-end 31 March 2024. And importantly, these options have all achieved returns above their long-term 10-year objectives to 31 March 20241.
Super and Transition to Retirement
For Super and Transition to Retirement (TTR) members, our Balanced Growth option returned 11.12% over the 12 months to 31 March 20242.
Balanced Growth option (MySuper) returns to 31 March 2024
You can view all our returns on our Super performance page or Transition to Retirement performance page.
Retirement Income Stream
For Retirement Income Stream (RIS) members, our Balanced Growth option returned 12.75% over the 12 months to 31 March 2024, and our Conservative option returned 7.09% over the same period2.
Retirement Income Stream Balanced Growth option returns to 31 March 2024
Retirement Income Stream Conservative option returns to 31 March 2024
market news
Despite uncertainty, optimism prevailed in the financial markets during the first quarter of this calendar year. Globally, central banks remained vigilant against inflation, while investors closely monitored economic indicators for signs of sustained growth.
Inflation ended 2023 at 4.1% and was trending towards the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA’s) target 2-3% band, but it has proven stubbornly high for many cost of living categories. Despite speculation about potential rate cuts, the nation's unemployment rate remained relatively low over the first three months, and house prices continued to climb.
The RBA kept its cash rate steady at 4.35% but shifted to a neutral bias, signalling a cautious approach to future monetary policy adjustments. In the United States, the Federal Reserve opted to maintain its policy rate while dropping its tightening bias. Strong economic indicators have challenged widespread worries of an impending economic slowdown. Notably, the Bank of Japan ended its decades-long negative interest rate policy.
While several stock markets reached record highs during the period, aforementioned concerns over inflation remain, tempering expectations for future rate cuts and impacting equity and bond market performance. Geopolitical uncertainty has also contributed to market volatility.
Following strong performance in the year through March, markets in April brought Balanced Growth returns closer to the long-term average, so it may help to read a refresher on what market volatility is and strategies to approach it. It’s worth remembering that your super is a long-term investment and market fluctuations are normal, which is why it’s important to keep a long-term focus.
Find out more about market volatility on the HESTA website >
super with impactTM
We’re incredibly honoured to have been given top ratings in some recent awards.
HESTA is awarded Outstanding Value by Canstar
We are exceptionally proud that HESTA won Canstar’s Outstanding Value – Superannuation – 2024 Award in March. Our Balanced Growth (MySuper) option demonstrated a consistently strong performance across all 25 underlying Star Rating profiles, earning a mix of 4- and 5-Stars3.
Chant West certifies HESTA products with highest rating
Chant West has awarded HESTA’s MySuper and Pension products with 5 Apples4, their highest rating, for 2024. It is an honour to be rated so highly, particularly for the continued quality of product and service we strive to provide to you.
investing for your future
Finally, we're pleased to share an investment from last quarter that showcases our creative thinking towards delivering competitive returns on one of the most-talked-about investment thematics: Artificial Intelligence, or as it’s more commonly known, AI.
Backing AI infrastructure
We recently invested into Radius Global Infrastructure (“Radius”). Radius is a leading global owner of rental streams and real estate underlying telecommunications assets. These include land under mobile towers, data centres, and data exchange centres. Radius has developed a large, diversified global portfolio of these assets across 21 countries. These sites are critical to the increasing demand for digital communications driven by the AI growth. With strong long-term prospects, holding the underlying real estate provides Radius investors with value in a worst-case scenario.
Leveraging HESTA’s size and reputation helped us to find this promising investment. NVIDIA and OpenAI may be the well-known names in the AI boom, but our investment teams think beyond the obvious to capitalise on investment trends for members.
1 Except Indexed Balanced Growth, which only commenced on 1 October 2020 and has returned 8.66% average annualised return since inception. Investments may go up or down. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Returns are net of investment fees and costs, transaction costs and taxes.
2 Investments may go up or down. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Returns are net of investment fees and costs, transaction costs and taxes.
3 The Superannuation Star Ratings and Award results referred to on this page were published in March 2024. View Canstar’s Superannuation Star Ratings and Award methodology for more information. The results are general advice only and not personal financial advice. They do not include all providers and may not compare all features relevant to you. Consider whether this general financial advice is right for your personal circumstances. Star Ratings and Awards are only one factor to take into account when considering products.
4 The Zenith CW Pty Ltd ABN 20 639 121 403 AFSL 226872/AFS Rep No. 1280401 Chant West rating (assigned February 2024) is limited to General Advice only and has been prepared without considering your objectives or financial situation, including target markets where applicable. The rating is not a recommendation to purchase, sell or hold any product and is subject to change at any time without notice. You should seek independent advice and consider the PDS or offer document before making any investment decisions. Ratings have been assigned based on third party data. Liability is not accepted, whether direct or indirect, from use of the rating. Past performance is not an indication of future performance. Refer to www.chantwest.com.au for full ratings information and our FSG. Please note that all information about performance returns is historical. Past performance should not be relied upon as an indicator of future performance; unit prices and the value of your investment may fall as well as rise. Current costs, features, performance and other product information may be different to what was rated and should be confirmed with the relevant financial institution. Consider the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS), the Target Market determination (TMD) and other applicable product documentation from the fund and seek advice from a licensed financial adviser before making an investment decision.
Balanced Growth is the default option for HESTA for Mercy Super, while a blend of Balanced Growth and Conservative is the default strategy for the HESTA for Mercy Income Stream.
HESTA for Mercy commenced 1 December 2022 and has the same investment options as HESTA. The past performance history shown here is the performance of the same investment options in HESTA.
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Investing with impact
Our vision is to use our expertise and influence to deliver strong long-term returns and help accelerate our contribution to a more sustainable world.