Wellington, Aug 23 NZPA - The New Zealand Superannuation Fund recorded a gain in July after two months of negative returns, as equities markets improved.

The fund, in which the Government has suspended automatic contributions to avoid further increasing debt, made a return of 4.76 percent last month, after a negative 1.54 percent in June and negative 4.82 percent in May.

The absolute returns were after fees but before tax, which the fund regards as a return to the crown.

Since its inception on September 30, 2003 the super fund has returned 6.14 percent on an annualised basis. The size of the fund -- which peaked in value at $16.7b in April 2010 -- was up from June to $16.44 billion at the end of July.

The fund said the main factor influencing its return in July was a recovery in equities markets, with global and New Zealand equities comprising a little over 69 percent of the portfolio by New Zealand dollar economic exposure as at July 31.

Global equities accounted for 63.1 percent of the fund value, or $10.36b, at the end of July, while at the end of June international equities had been recorded as making up 45.1 percent of the fund, or $7.06b.

International fixed income was 7.1 percent of the fund, or $1.17b, at the end of July, compared to 16.7 percent and $2.6b at the end of June.

Global listed property was down to 4.3 percent or $710m at the end of July, from 7.5 percent or $1.17b a month earlier.