KiwiSaver funds hit nearly $71 billion

KiwiSaver has continued to grow despite the volatility in markets this year. Photo / Steven McNicholl.

The amount of money invested in KiwiSaver has continued to rise this year and is now over $70 billion despite the ongoing volatility in global markets.

Latest Morningstar figures show KiwiSaver funds under management hit $70.9 billion at the end of the September quarter, up from $63.1b at the end of 2019.

Tim Murphy, director of manager research Asia Pacific with Morningstar, said over the quarter all multi-sector KiwiSaver funds had produced positive returns.

"Funds with a large exposure to small and mid-cap New Zealand stocks are likely to have performed particularly well."

Returns averaged from 1.9 per cent for conservative funds to 5.3 per cent for aggressive funds.

The top performing fund for conservative category for the quarter was CareSaver Conservative up 2.5 per cent.

While the Juno KiwiSaver balanced fund was the best in the balanced category up 8.4 per cent. Juno's growth fund also topped the returns for the growth category up 12.5 per cent over the quarter.

The average annual returns ranged from 4.2 per cent to 7 per cent for multi-sector funds.

Murphy said New Zealand shares had had a volatile year to date with a big sell-off in February and March, a recovery through to late August and a small correction in September.

That meant for the year to date the NZX/S&P 50 index was up 2.2 per cent even after a rise of 2.6 per cent over the September quarter.

The Australian market started the quarter on a positive note but a resurgence in Covid case numbers pulled back expectations of a speedy recovery, he said.

That saw the S&P/ASX 200 index drop 0.4 per cent over the quarter while international shares rose over the quarter with the MSCI World Index up 7.9 per cent in US dollars and 5.1 per cent in NZ dollars.

ANZ remains the largest KiwiSaver provider with more than $16.4 billion in funds under management with ASB second with $12.5b followed by Westpac with nearly $8b.