Pensions - Articles - Index shows both schemes hold steady through August

The Broadstone Sirius Index has published its August tracking for a ‘growth focused’ and a more conservative ‘matching focused’ investment strategy against a low dependency basis. Both schemes started 90.0% funded at the start of 2026.

Reporting its update for August 2026, the Broadstone Sirius Index found that both schemes held steady throughout the month with the ‘growth focused’ scheme seeing only 0.6 percentage points between the highest and lowest funding level. The  ‘matching’ scheme showed a narrower range, as expected, staying in a 0.4 percentage point range.

Overall, the ‘growth focused’ scheme saw a marginal improvement in funding which rose from 94.1% to 94.2% through the month, while the ‘matching focused’ scheme dropped by 0.1 percentage points to 89.8% at the end of August.

Andy Knight-Stephens, Investment Director at Broadstone, commented: “August saw gilt yields reach levels not seen for decades. The move was part of a broader global government bond sell-off, driven by persistent inflation concerns and renewed focus on fiscal sustainability.

“Growth assets, particularly equities, delivered positive returns over August, with most major equity markets advancing in Sterling terms, despite the continued uncertain macroeconomic backdrop.

“Pension schemes will have seen mixed results over the month depending on their composition of fixed and inflation-linked liabilities and approach to investment strategy.

“Looking ahead we could see collateral calls for LDI arrangements, and schemes should consider asset allocation rebalancing needs in light of recent growth and matching asset performance.”