The October market falls hit hard the returns UK pension funds were experiencing for 1997, according to performance measurers The WM Company. Returns are reckoned to have reduced by around 6%. In the first nine months, pension funds on average were experiencing returns of 18.9%, but these are now likely to come in at 12%, says WM. On their UK portfolios, the correction produced a 6.5% fall on average, though 1997 returns were still 17%. But WM believes that many UK funds will lose out as they were very overweight in the Pacific and underweight in North America, where the correction was less marked. WM commented that the position of active managers of UK equities improved in the third quarter as their returns were better than the index. The events in October may have strengthened their position further as the largest falls were in the FTSE 100 stocks in which these managers were relatively light.

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