SWEDEN – Current market volatility has hit equity funds hard in the state premium pension system (PPM) with funds on average down to around 85% of their initial value last autumn, according to a PPM report.

One of the hardest hit funds has been last autumn’s most popular choice, the technology focused Robur Contura fund, which received contributions of SEK2.3bn (e255m) last autumn and is down 39% to SEK1.4bn.
Many technology funds in the PPM, however, have suffered more.

Most internet technology funds in the PPM now sit at between 50-60% of their initial value, although SEB’s internet fund returned the worse figures to drop to 35% of its original size.
On April 3, 2001 it valued SEK17.6m, compared to SEK49.7m last year, according to the PPM.

The ten most popular funds in the PPM list invest in stocks and all have lost at least 11% of their value.
AMF’s world and Sweden funds have lost 12% (now at SEK1.62bn) and 16% (SEK1.11bn) in value respectively.
Robur’s other top ten funds, Pension and Medica showed negative returns of –18% (now SEK1.32bn) and –11% (SEK984m).
SPP’s lifestyle funds, for those born in the 1950s and in the 1960s, are down –11% and –14% respectively.

The default fund (AP7), for those 1.5 million Swedes who have not made an active choice, has lost more than SEK200m since last autumn.
The asset value of the fund has fallen down 13% to SEK13.8bn from SEK15.89bn.

The best performing equity fund, Aragon’s SKAPA Kina, which invests in Chinese shares, returned 7%, growing to SEK48.9bn from SEK45.6m.

The best returns came from fixed income funds, most of which returned 0-9%, with eurobond funds from Banque de Luxembourg, Finnish investment manager Evli, and JP Morgan topping the list with 9% returns.