Pension, Endowment Funds Slip Along with Market in Q2

August 12, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Just how well did public, private and foundation/endowment plans fare in the tumultuous second quarter of 2002?

Mercer Investment Consulting’s Summary Performance of US Institutional Portfolios found that median corporate plans chalked up a 5.5% second-quarter loss, while for public plans and endowments, plan administrators lost 5.1% and 5.4% respectively.

The six-month figures for the period ending June 30 found that the median corporate plan shed 4.4%, while public plans and foundation/endowment funds left behind 4.1% and 3.8% respectively.

Small Caps Shine

Also from Mercer was word that only small-cap value money managers are on target to meet forecasted results based on Mercer’s most recent investment manager survey.

According to Mercer, the small-cap value mangers were predicted to generate 10% for the year 2002 and, so far, have put up 5.5%.

On the other hand, US growth managers have posting double-digit losses on a year-to-date basis, -17.2% for large-cap and -14.1% for small-cap managers.

The trend of small-cap managers outperforming their large-cap counterparts has continued, magnified by the market downturn, Mercer said.  The median small-cap manager returned -7.2% over the last quarter versus -12.6% for the median large-cap manager.

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