PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — Eleven months into the current fiscal year, the investment portfolio of the South Dakota Retirement System has returned about one-half of 1 percent, Matt Clark told the system’s trustees Wednesday.

That’s better than the benchmark the system uses for a comparison. The benchmark was up about one-quarter of 1 percent, the state investment officer said.

The system ended the 2019 fiscal year on June 30 with a market value of about $12.5 billion, according to a January report to the Legislature.

“For fiscal year 2019, the SDRS Trust Fund, under the management of the South Dakota Investment
Council, produced a money-weighted net investment return of 4.84 percent. This was less than both
the Council’s investment return benchmark and the SDRS long-term investment return assumption of 6.50 percent,” the report said.

Clark told trustees Monday that SDRS continues to increase its cash position as the market prices rise beyond what the office staff and the state Investment Council believe are fair values.

He said the system reduced its market position to 50 percent Wednesday morning. “That was completed just moments ago,” he said.

Clark estimated the system might now be showing a gain of about 1 percent. He said SDRS was “overweight” in emerging markets and that hurt its performance.