In the last quarter of the 2024-25 financial year, investment markets continued to be volatile.
Markets around the world declined sharply in the first week of April following President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ announcement of tariffs that were higher and further reaching than expected. The US market was one of the worst hit with the S&P 500 falling 22% and the NASDAQ-100 falling 25%.
Share markets recovered a substantial portion of these April losses as investors concluded the tariff rhetoric was a negotiating tactic, and actual tariffs would be much lower than first anticipated.
Global markets also brushed off Middle East tensions at the end of the June quarter to finish strongly with global shares increasing 11.6%#, while emerging markets shares gained 12.2% in US-dollar terms^.
Locally the Australian share market also finished the year strongly posting a 9.5% return for the quarter*. Technology, financial and communication sectors were strong performers whilst a rise in oil prices in June helped energy stocks.
A reduction in interest rates in the quarter was also a welcome relief. With inflation easing further to be within the target range and unemployment low, at its meeting in May the Reserve Bank of Australia reduced rates to 3.85%.
BUSSQ’s positive investment performance
Our Balanced Growth option delivered a strong return of 10.09% for Super members and 12.43% for Income account members for the 2024-25 financial year.
Our investment strategy this financial year was to hold a relatively defensive position as we believed share markets (particularly US markets) were overvalued.
We took advantage of the volatility in April and increased our investment in US, Global and Australian shares, as part of our investment strategy. This decision has led to a significant improvement in our financial year returns across our diversified options.
Visit our investment performance page to see our 2024-25 returns for all investment options.
Future outlook
As we enter the new financial year, investors anticipate markets will continue to be volatile. Geopolitical tensions between a number of nations remain high and global trade tensions persist with the 3 month tariff pause ending on 1 August after an extension was applied.
