A super time, on balance

Such a purchase “could solve Flight Centre’s online issue”, Macquarie said, noting the group had been a late adopter in the space and still lagged its online competition measured by profit margin.

Macquarie maintained its underperform recommendation on Flight Centre shares, with a $25.56 price target. AUSTRALIANS enjoyed a healthy boost in superannuation fund returns last month, research shows, although gains noticeably undershot the strong performance of the sharemarket.

The return for the average balanced fund was 1.1 per cent for the month, according to research house SuperRatings.

It marks a return to the black after a modest negative reading in January.

The gains were pinned on strength in the Australian sharemarket, with the ASX 200 jumping 2.3 per cent in February.

“What we have seen so far in 2017 is some stability in superannuation returns following what was potentially a bit of hype at the end of 2016,” SuperRatings chairman Jeff Bresnahan said.

“Investors do not want to see markets getting too carried away, especially when there is still a fair amount of political and economic uncertainty globally.”

Despite the subdued start to the year for super as a whole, the 12-month rolling return to February 28 has reached 11.3

“Structural and cyclical issues continue to weigh on the stock and, in our view, consensus expectations for a recovery (next financial year) are still too optimistic and not reflective of structural margin declines and continued pricing pressure,” the note said.

Webjet shares closed 1.9 per cent lower at $11.07. per cent – the highest mark in two years.

Again, equities have been key, with global sharemarkets rallying.

“Looking over the past 12 months, only three months have seen negative returns, and these have been small, especially compared to the larger positive gains we saw at the end of 2016,” Mr Bresnahan said.

“Super balances seem to be in reasonable health, so investors should not panic if we do experience bumps.”

While turbulence may be on the horizon, positive returns are expected this year.

“Overall, we remain broadly positive for 2017,” Mr Bresnahan said.

“We saw a very promising GDP figure for the fourth quarter of 2016, driven by consumer spending and a turnaround in export volumes, and this appears to have continued into early 2017.”