Pension funds extended their gains to nine consecutive months in the second quarter of 2005, the longest unbroken period of gains since the mid-1990s, according to research company Russell/Mellon on Friday.

Funds classed in the pooled balanced category achieved a median positive return of 4.7 percent, led by strong performance in stock markets, it said.

Pooled pension funds hold assets on behalf of several pension portfolios and run them as a single pot.

“This recent run of positive performance also brings pension funds that bit closer to where they were before the bear run at the start of the decade,” Daniel Hall, Russell/Mellon’s publications and statistics manager, said in a note.

On one measure, a typical balanced fund — holding a mix of bonds, stocks, cash and other assets — would be worth about 98 percent of its asset value at the end of 1999, he said.

Positive returns were achieved across all major asset classes, with UK equities returning 5.0 percent and overseas stocks logging 6.7 percent gains. UK bonds recorded a return of 4.7 percent, and property returned. 4.5 percent.

Pension fund managers shifted out of domestic UK equities and bonds over the quarter, continuing a trend seen in recent years. UK equity weightings fell by 0.6 percent to 50.6 percent.

-Reuters

Scots lottery winners are the least likely to splurge after a big win, preferring instead to spend sensibly and invest the cash, a new survey has revealed.

The spend spend spend lifestyle is out, with most winners using the money to buy a new house or go on a nice holiday.

Almost a quarter of those surveyed said they would share their good luck with family and close friends, however 7% said they would not tell anyone about their big win.

The survey, for National Savings and Investments (NS&I), asked almost 1,500 Brits what they would spend a £1 million win on. Not one Scot said they would blow their win on flashy cars or designer clothes and jewellery, in fact 11% said they would not spend anything at all.

Half those surveyed said they would spend the money on a new house or car or a property abroad, while almost one in 10 said they would put it in secure savings and investments.

But while the Scots have a reputation for being tight-fisted they are more likely to give some of their win to charity than winners south of the border, with more than 80% saying they would give to a good cause.

Scotland has had a run of lottery luck in recent weeks. Last weekend Midlothian couple Alex and Sandra Fraser scooped the £8.5 million Lotto jackpot.

In keeping with the survey’s findings the couple said that they would be spending their win on a nice house, a car - and a box at their beloved Hibernian FC.

Just the week before the Frasers’ big win six distillery workers from Glasgow shared in a £15 million Lotto prize. The colleagues from Morrison Bowmore Distillers, each won a £2.5 million share of the jackpot.

But while the Frasers and the distillery workers went public with their big wins according to the NS&I survey most people (61%) would only tell family and close friends.

One in four winners would only tell their partner while 7% would not tell anyone at all, with men more likely than women to keep their good fortune a secret.

Enterprising Scots are also more likely to use some of the money to launch a business idea - with the majority naming their role model in terms of managing their money as billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson.

Just 4% of Scots said they would model their spending on the Beckhams, almost a quarter chose to follow Harry Potter author JK Rowling’s example when it came to how to spend their riches

The confidence of Shanghai property developers has plunged to its lowest level since 2000 amid a government blitz on rampant real-estate speculation in the city.

The Shanghai Real Estate Confidence Index of Entrepreneurs, compiled by the central government’s National Bureau of Statistics, fell to 95.8 in the second quarter, a drop of 64 points, or 40 percent, from the first quarter.

A reading above 100 indicates positive sentiment, while a reading below 100 reflects negative sentiment.

The latest reading is 50.4 points below the second quarter of last year and the lowest since the first quarter of 2000.

The statistics bureau said most developers it surveyed expect the confidence index to drop further in the third quarter.

Governments at the national and municipal levels have piled on the hurt for property sellers this year in an effort to crimp speculation, which has been especially rife in Shanghai, though it is also a recognized problem in Beijing and Guangzhou. Residential prices in Shanghai rose 44 percent from 2000 to 2004, according to property consultants, Colliers International.

In May, the central government imposed a 5 percent tax on proceeds of home sales within two years of purchase. It also banned the transfer of titles for uncompleted units. Not long before, the Shanghai municipal government imposed a 5 percent capital gains tax on flats sold within a year of purchase.

The statistics bureau said finding money for projects has become the biggest problem for 58 percent of the developers it polled.

“A lot of developers, especially the smaller ones, are finding it very difficult to get further financing for their projects,” said Wayne Zane, Shanghai-based associate director for research at Colliers.

Tenants in areas due for redevelopment were also digging in their heels and demanding better compensation from developers before agreeing to move out, he said.

Zane said a major factor in project delays in the center of Shanghai was the decision early last year to reduce plot ratios, which determine the size of new developments, inside the city’s inner ring road.

“A lot of developers who bought land before 2004 are suffering because the buildable area of their projects has been significantly reduced,” he said.

As a result, many developers, including Hong Kong’s Kerry Properties, were still locked in arguments with government officials over plot ratios.

Some major mainland developers said they had slowed the pace of property investment in Shanghai in the second quarter of the year when property sales fell.

For example, China Overseas Land and Investment, a listed firm controlled by China’s Construction Ministry, said it would focus on developments outside Shanghai because its expects prices in the commercial metropolis to fall by 20 percent this year.

Another state-run company, China Resources Land, said the number of property transactions in Beijing and Shanghai plummeted by more than 30 percent in May alone, though prices in Beijing had not been severely affected.

Beijing Capital Land, the property arm of the city’s municipal government, which recently issued an interim profit warning, said the central government’s austerity measures imposed last year, prior to this year’s targeted anti-speculation measures, had delayed approval of three of its projects in the capital for nine months. As a result, “pre-sales” of uncompleted properties in all three were pushed back to this year from last year.

Christine Mui, a spokeswoman for Shui On Construction and Materials, said the company’s Shui On Land unit had no plans to delay any of its Shanghai projects, though this could change according to the market’s evolution.

Shui On chairman Vincent Lo said Monday the firm might adjust its sales strategy for upcoming launches, by offering fewer units for sale and more for rental, for example.

Source: The Standard