KiwiSaver grows $2.5b in three months

The amount of money invested in KiwiSaver funds grew by $2.5 billion in the three months to September 30. Photo/Steven McNicol.

The amount of money invested in KiwiSaver grew $2.5 billion in the last quarter to hit $35.9 billion, figures from Morningstar show.

Morningstar's September quarter report was released yesterday show funds continue to flow strongly into the retirement savings scheme.

Tim Murphy, director of manager research with Morningstar, said it was a solid quarter for KiwiSaver funds with all options producing positive results over the three months to September 30.

The top performing fund for the quarter was the Booster Trans-Tasman Share fund returning 7.6 per cent, while the top fund for the year to September 30 was the OneAnswer Australasian share fund which was up 30.9 per cent.

Murphy said average returns for the conservative, balanced, growth and aggressive categories ranged between 1.61 per cent and 4.32 per cent.

Top performers over the quarter against their peer groups included the Fisher TWO KiwiSaver Cash Enhanced fund at 2.03 per cent (conservative), Aon Lifepoints Balanced
3.67 per cent, BNZ KiwiSaver Growth at 4.56 per cent and Booster KiwiSaver Geared Growth at 5.65 per cent.

Murphy said New Zealand's sharemarket was up 6.7 per cent over the quarter highlighting the strength of the New Zealand economy.

"The underlying drivers of high net immigration, strong tourism, and a booming
construction sector remain; added to this improved prospects for the dairy sector, and we will most likely see continued momentum for the economy."

The Australian share market lagged New Zealand slightly, with a return of 5.1 per cent in
local currency terms while global share markets were not as strong with global equities registering a 2.70 per cent return in New Zealand dollar terms.