Equity gloom continues everywhere

The Australian and overseas sharemarkets continued to decline in April, with domestic equities producing their worst monthly return for over two years.

Smaller companies took the brunt of the local equities downturn, according to a Mercer Investment Consulting survey, with the S&P/ASX small ordinaries index falling by 6 per cent, against an S&P/ASX 300 fall of 3.1 per cent.

The median manager in Mercer’s Australian specialist shares survey posted a fall of 3.3 per cent in April and a fall of 1.9 per cent for the past three months.

Only one manager, UBS, has achieved a positive return in the local equities survey for the last three months, posting a gain of 0.2 per cent for the period.

However, it too posted a negative 2.2 percent return in April, ranking second behind MIR Investment Value, which returned negative 1.5 per cent for the month.

The survey revealed the consumer discretionary sector was the hardest hit among domestic equities in April, returning a 9.9 per cent fall for the month. The utilities sector bucked the negative trend, however, rising by 3.7%, while financials was also up - by 1 per cent.

All major overseas markets also produced minus returns for April, according to Mercer, with Continental Europe performing worst.

Both the French and German equity markets declined by more than 5 per cent in Australian dollars, contributing to an MSCI ex Australia (unhedged) index fall of negative 3.1% for the month.

The median manager in the Mercer overseas share survey for April posted a minus 3.2 per cent return and minus 1.8 per cent for the last three months.