New York State Common Retirement Fund returns -0.52% for quarter

New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, returned -0.52% for the quarter ended Sept. 30, said Matthew Sweeney, a spokesman for state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the sole trustee of the pension fund.

The pension fund’s assets totaled $178.3 billion at the end of the plan’s second quarter of the current fiscal year, a 1.3% drop from June 30.

“On the heels of a robust first quarter, the second quarter presented investors with challenges,” Mr. DiNapoli said in a news release issued Wednesday.

The news release cited “underperforming U.S. small-cap stocks and global central bank actions that triggered broad market volatility in the international markets” as affecting the pension fund’s returns. Mr. Sweeney didn’t provide additional information.

As of Sept. 30, the pension fund’s asset allocation was 38.1% domestic equities; 26.6% cash, bonds and mortgages; 16.9% international equities; 7.9% private equity; 6.8% real estate; 3.1% absolute-return strategy; and 0.6% in opportunistic alternatives and real assets.

Robert Steyer writes for Pensions & Investments, a sister publication of Business Insurance.