The New York State Common Retirement Fund’s (Fund) overall return in the second quarter of the state fiscal year 2015 was -0.52 percent, bringing the Fund’s estimated value to $178.3 billion, according to New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

“On the heels of a robust first quarter, the second quarter presented investors with challenges,” DiNapoli said. “As always, our diversified investment allocation positions us to maximize long-term value.”

The Fund's positive performance in some markets during the three months ending Sept. 30 was offset by underperforming U.S. small cap stocks and global central bank actions that triggered broad market volatility in the international markets.

The Fund’s value was $176.8 billion as of the end of the state fiscal year on March 31, 2014 and an estimated $180.7 billion at the end of the first quarter.

The Fund has 38.1 percent of its assets invested in publicly traded domestic equities and 16.9 percent in international public equities. The remaining Fund assets by allocation are invested in cash, bonds and mortgages (26.6 percent), private equity (7.9 percent), real estate (6.8 percent), absolute return strategy (3.1 percent) and opportunistic strategy alternatives and real assets (0.6 percent).

DiNapoli initiated quarterly performance reporting by the Fund in 2009 as part of his on-going efforts to increase accountability and transparency.

About the Common Retirement Fund

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli is trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the third largest public pension plan in the United States with more than one million members, retirees and beneficiaries from more than 3,000 state and local government employers.

The Fund has a diversified portfolio of public and private equities, fixed income, real estate and alternative instruments and has consistently been ranked as one of the best managed and best funded plans in the nation. Over the past 20 years, 82 percent of the cost of benefit payments has been funded by investment returns. The Fund’s fiscal year ends March 31, 2015.