Which are the best-performing KiwiSaver funds?

Volatile oil prices have helped clean energy KiwiSaver funds shine in the early months of this year.

Morningstar has released its latest KiwiSaver survey, which shows the first quarter of this year was a tough one for KiwiSaver funds, but over a year they are still performing strongly.

Conservative funds had a peer group return of -1 percent in the quarter but returned 4.5 percent in the year. ASB had the strongest return over the year, up 6.5 percent.

Default funds were down 2.7 percent in the quarter and up 8.8 percent in a year. Fisher Funds was the strongest default fund over a year, at 10.1 percent.

Moderate funds were down 1.8 percent in the quarter but up 5.4 percent in the year. ASB was top over one year, at 8.1 percent.

Balanced funds were down 2.6 percent over three months but up 8.5 percent over a year. Pie was first, up 12.3 percent over a year.

Growth funds were down 3.5 percent in the quarter and up 9 percent in a year. Pie was up 15.5 percent, in first place.

Aggressive funds were down 4 percent in the quarter and up 12.1 percent over 12 months. The strongest aggressive result was Kernel's High Growth, up 17.6 percent. That fund was also top over three years and three months.

Over a 10-year period aggressive funds have the highest return, at 8.9 percent per annum.

But Milford has the highest growth over 10 years in its active growth fund, at 9.8 percent a year, a return that was equal to the top aggressive fund, Booster.

Koura KiwiSaver founder Rupert Carlyon said the report did not capture the rebound at the end of the March quarter.

"The S&P 500 returned to a new record last week, which would have dealt with most of it. The only stock market that's not doing well is actually New Zealand."

He said markets around the world had taken the view that conflict in Iran did not really matter.

"To a certain extent, Jerome Powell said that on Friday morning as well, when he gave a speech when the US Fed announced it would keep rates on hold.

"He said that the US consumer is still strong. We would have expected consumer spending to weaken, but we've seen no evidence of that… Oil prices are high, but they're only as high as where they were back in 2022.

"We're finding alternative supplies. It's kind of working. And we know Trump is desperately looking for an off-ramp."

He said growth in AI was also helping.

"The AI story has got so much stronger in the last six to 12 weeks following the launch of Claude Code."

He said a global recession had been forecast four times since 2020 and had never happened.

"So that's my very long way of saying, do we expect it to be another double-digit year? Probably not. But is there a reason why markets are about to fall another 10, 20 percent? Not really."

The top fund over a year was Kernel's Global Clean Energy Fund with 87.9 percent. Over three months that fund was up 16.8 percent. Koura's was up 59.3 percent over a year.

Carlyon said that had been something that people had written off in the past.

"It was one of the few positive funds over the last quarter. And the reason for that's pretty simple, right?

"Clean energy goes into data centres, a lot of semiconductors, a lot of that technology base and rare earth metals and all of that."

Kernel founder Dean Anderson was celebrating Kernel's strong results in the latest update.

"That's the pay-off of a data-led, low-fee, index-based approach showing up in the numbers KiwiSaver's actually care about. Fair to say, Kernel is shaking things up and we're very proud of the outcomes we've been providing investors."

He said rising oil prices had helped the clean energy fund.

"Every spike in fossil fuel prices strengthens the economic case for solar, wind and storage. [It's] worth noting it's a thematic fund and a small slice of what we do, less than 1 percent of Kernel's [funds under management]. Most of our KiwiSaver members sit in the diversified funds, which is exactly how it should be, despite the fact Kernel does offer the ability to fully personalise your KiwiSaver with us."

Koura's bitcoin fund was bottom of the table, down 21.8 percent in the quarter and 18.9 percent over a year. Its results tend to be very volatile as the currency moves in value.

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