Asset Allocation – Page 269
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Features
Scepticism still the prevailing mood
A year ago at this time, market watchers in Japan were still hopeful that momentum from the nearly 60% surge in share prices in 1999 would carry over into 2000. The first few months of 2000 saw the TOPIX index covering Tokyo Stock Exchange first-section companies—some 1,450 stocks—hover around the ...
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Features
OPERF's balancing act
Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund (OPERF) is one of the most aggressive and successful US public pension funds. Its performance speaks for itself: 20.6% annual return for the 12 months ending September 30, 2000; 16% annual return for the five years ending the same date. But its success is also ...
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Features
New agency to oversee funds
The Republic of Macedonia has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons over the past few months, but surprisingly its economy has shown a strong performance and its government a commitment to social reform. Sadly last month the threat of civil war emerged again, although the government refuses ...
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Features
The beginning of reform
The Belgian government has taken a step forward in the development of the country’s pension fund system, with a proposed new law aiming to promote the consolidation of the second pillar. The new law, subject to review, will probably come into force at the end of the year. It will ...
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Features
Opportunity to improve benefits management
The world of financial reporting of retirement benefits for UK-based multinationals changed in November 2000 when the UK Accounting Standards Board (ASB) published Financial Reporting Standard 17 (FRS 17). FRS 17, which values plan assets and liabilities by reference to current market conditions, is very different to the previous standard ...
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Features
Brussels hit by liquidity squeeze
Like most exchanges Brussels’ has had a dreadful year. This is all the less excusable given that the BEL20 is light on TMT stocks. With the index opening at around 3,300 at the beginning of last year, it nose-dived and bottomed out at the middle of March last year at ...
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Features
Californian colossus
How much can politics affect the investment decisions of a huge US pension fund in the public sector? A lot, judging by the latest example of the tensions between the board and the staff who manage Calpers, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the nation’s largest public pension fund. Following ...
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Features
Cash positions
The investment in commodities using derivatives such as total return swaps and futures means the fund has to keep a cash position in order to prevent leverage. This cash position has to be equal in size to the total commodities exposure of the derivatives. On a monthly basis PGGM’s positions ...
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Features
Japan 'close to real crisis'
Although economic and interest rate forecasting is a complex affair even in the good times, when asked about Japan many fund managers, both bond and equity, shiver visibly. For global investors, investing in Japan has long been accompanied by a fair element of fear. It was back in 1990 that ...
