The average managed pension fund increased by 4.5 per cent in the third-quarter of 2000 with Progressive Life achieving the higher returns in the sector at 6.4 per cent. It was closely followed by Equitable Life at 6.3 per cent while the weakest performance came from Baillie Gifford (2.8 per cent) and Montgomery Oppenheim (2.9 per cent).

Almost all of the gains were generated by strong equity markets growth led by the technology sector during the three-month period. Since then, however, there has been a heavy sell-off within this sector pushing international markets into negative territory for the month of September.