24th September 2021
MPF commentator releases latest MPF performance data
MPF Ratings’ August MPF Scheme Net Returns Summary is now available.
Key points are as follows:
- August’s MPF assets grew 1.19% to $1.201tr (See Table 1), an increase of $14.089 billion over 1-month. The year-to-date (YTD) growth of MPF assets was 5.4%.
- Average MPF account balance for MPF’s 4.54m members grew $3,000 in August to $264,000. YTD average balance was up by $9,000.
- The MPF industry reported median gains of 0.7% and 1.8% in August and YTD respectively. All MPF schemes recorded positive 1-month net returns in August (Also see Table 1).
- The Haitong MPF Retirement Fund generated the best 1-month net return in August (2.1%) and was the only MPF scheme recording a positive performance over 3 months (Also see Table 1).
- With a wide range of investment choices covering US, European and Global equity markets (which were the 3 best performing asset classes on a YTD basis), the biggest MPF Scheme, Manulife Global Select (MPF) Scheme, generated the best YTD net return (4.8%) (Also see Table 1).
In releasing MPF schemes’ net return performance numbers for August MPF Ratings’ Chairman, Mr Francis Chung (叢川普) observed the following, “Positively, August saw all MPF Schemes produce positive returns for members but a point of concern from the data was the performance differential between the best and worst MPF Scheme where the worst performing MPF scheme underperformed the best by 7 times for the month of August. Additionally, while August proved to be a positive month for MPF members we are fully expecting September performance to be poor given the significant exposure members have to Hong Kong and China equities and the concerns emanating from the ongoing worries over the immediate future of China Evergrande and its affect on the broader Mainland economy.”
Table 1: MPF Scheme Assets and Net Returns as at 31 August 2021
Source: MPF Ratings
