THE release of performance numbers of funds under the Central Provident Fund Investment Scheme (CPFIS) should not have surprised anyone monitoring the markets by now.

Yesterday's results pointed to a solid year, but they also reflected how strongly both stocks and bonds have rebounded following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in late 2008.

The average return of CPFIS-included funds, unit trusts and investment-linked insurance products (ILPs) rose 38.62 per cent last year compared with the figure in same period a year ago.

CPFIS-included unit trusts advanced 40.75 per cent for the year ended Dec 31, according to Lipper, the funds tracking company under the CPF Board's guidelines. ILPs gained 36.66 per cent on average over the same period.

'In a year that saw consistently bullish equities for the bulk of three of its most recent quarters, it comes as no surprise that equity offerings among both CPFIS unit trusts and ILPs posted spectacular gains,' said Lipper's research analyst for Asean, Mr Rajeev Baddepudi.

'Of the positive and quarterly-incremental net inflows into the region last year, which were to the tune of $2.33 billion, over 58 per cent went into equity fund offerings, and 82 per cent of those were offerings allocating to the Asia-Pacific.'

However, for the three-year period to December, CPFIS-included funds were still in the red - registering a negative 6.64 per cent growth on average.

This was accounted for by a loss of 8.43 per cent on average from CPFIS-included unit trusts and an average loss of 5.12 per cent from CPFIS-included ILPs.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.