Resilient global equity markets helped lift Canadian pension plans back into positive territory during the third quarter, finds a survey from RBC Investor & Treasury Services.
According to the $460 billion RBC Investor & Treasury Services All Plan universe, DB pension assets rose 3.6% during the three months ending Sept. 30, 2013, bringing year-to-date totals to 7.9%.
“Improving economic data from Europe and China helped spark global stocks,” says Scott MacDonald, head, pension segment development for RBC Investor & Treasury Services. “But continued speculation over Fed tapering and the looming U.S. fiscal impasse kept financial markets volatile.”
Canadian stocks rebounded from June’s low, gaining 6.9% while exceeding the S&P/TSX Composite Index by 0.7% during the quarter.
Foreign equities moved higher for the fifth successive quarter, advancing 5.7% against 5.4% for the MSCI World Index.
On a year-to-date basis, foreign stocks continue to be the top performing asset class as pension plans kept pace with the global benchmark, up 21.1%.
“Canadian dollar weakness against most major currencies helped boost returns by over 2.2% for the nine-month period,” he adds.
Bonds continued to show weakness as Canadian plans saw their holdings gain only 0.1% in the last three months as DEX Universe Bond Index yields increased for a third straight quarter.
Year-to-date, bond holdings declined 1.7% while the DEX Long Term index lost 5.9 % and DEX Real Return Bonds are down 11.4%.
Related articles: