Pensions Post a Positive

New York’s pension fund posted an 8.01% positive return in the second quarter of the fiscal year, the state comptroller’s office reported last week.

The New York State Common Retirement Fund preliminary market value has been volatile in the first half of the fiscal year that began April 1. The fund’s value increased to $132.8 billion in the quarter ending Sept. 30 from $124.8 billion on June 30. That puts it roughly back to where it was on March 31, when it was valued at $132.6 billion. 

“Last year’s record returns are holding,” Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a news release. “Over the past few weeks the market has shown strength, however, there’s still volatility.”

DiNapoli said strength in the stock market helped boost returns. The funds’ largest allocations — 38.8% — are in publicly traded domestic equities, with 16.3% in international equities and 27.2% in cash and bonds.

The remainder is in private equity, real estate, absolute return and opportunistic strategies.

The recession and weak economy of the past few years hammered the fund, which three years ago was valued at $154.5 billion.

In September, DiNapoli announced that New York state and local government employers would have to increase average pension contributions to 16.3% of salaries from 11.9%, and he lowered the assumed rate of return on pension fund investments to 7.5% from 8%.

Contributions for fire and police employees will rise to 21.6% from 18.2%. The increases go into effect in fiscal 2012, which begins April 1.

Pension contributions are calculated using a five-year averaging that smooths out sharp changes in the market.

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