This is the second time in the history when pension funds had losses in the first half of the year. The previous time was in 2001. This time, the losses are much bigger and amount to 8.79 percent on average.
“The results are connected with the situation on the markets they invest in. In the first half of the year, the situation was bad both on the stock market and on the bond market. Hence the losses”, Adam Kaldus, OFE Bankowy manager said.
Over 30 percent of the portfolios are stocks. Meanwhile, WIG has shed over 25 percent this year.
“It was impossible to reduce the stocks in the portfolio. But funds sold stock when the market was bullish in the May-July 2007 period”, Adam Kurowski, OFE AXA manager added.
“The funds had no chance to quickly reduce the stock substantially. Smaller funds could have done so but they would differ from the average too much. In case of a failure they would need to pay additional amounts of money, the fine for a result below the minimum return on investment”, Tomasz Publicewicz, Analizy Online analyst commented.
“If there wasn’t the minimum return on investment, the funds could build their portfolios otherwise. Now no one wants to risk and differ from the average”, Piotr Sieradzan believed.
Even foreign investments would have been no help because the situation on worldwide markets was bearish as well. In addition, funds have a limit of 5 percent for foreign investments.
The best funds, including AIG, Pocztylion, Nordea and AXA lost about 8 percent. PZU Zlota Jesien, the weakest fund lost 10.2 percent. The cautious ones were the winners.
“We had little shares at the beginning of the year. In March and April, we
increased the number of shares and we were lucky: the stock of the companies
rose or at least lost less then others”, Piotr Sieradzan
admitted.