June 2010

June saw negative performance for growth assets, with negative returns from Australian shares, Australian listed property and international shares (unhedged to $A). Financial asset (Australian and international fixed interest) performance was positive for the month.

Australian shares

The Australian stock market returned -2.6% in June, following a fall of -7.5% in May (S&P/ASX300 Accumulation Index). Resource stocks outperformed industrial stocks over the month, returning
-1.3% and -3.1% respectively.

International shares

Overall, international stock markets fell 4.2% in June, following a gain of 0.7% in May (MSCI World Ex Australia in $A (unhedged)).

The US stock market returned -5.4% in June, following a fall of 8.2% in May (S&P500). Technology stocks were negative, returning -6.5% for the month (NASDAQ).

The UK stock market fell 5.2% for the month, following a return of -6.6% May (FTSE).

The Japanese stock market (Nikkei) returned -4.0% for the month, following a fall of 11.7% the previous month.

Emerging markets fell 1.4% in Australian dollar terms, following a gain of  1.2% in May (MSCI Emerging Markets Free ($A) Accumulation Index).

Property

Australian listed property was negative for the month, returning -0.8% (S&P/ASX200 Property Trust Accumulation Index), following a fall of 4.0% the previous month.

Fixed interest

The Australian bond market (UBS Australia Composite Bond Index) returned 1.4% in June. The international bond markets (Barclays Capital based Aggregate Index (hedged to $A) (formerly Lehman Brothers Index)) returned 1.2% for the month.

Cash

The Australian short-term money market returned 0.4% (UBS Warburg Australia Bank Bill Index).