In both its interim Australian Superannuation Survey and Institutional Sector Survey, Morningstar found that Australian shares fell in the month to March 31 despite a generally positive performance for the year so far.

"March interrupted a short run of positive returns for Australian shares," Morningstar's Institutional Sector Survey stated.

"The performance of the index was down -2.2 per cent, after nine consecutive month of positive results."

The survey found that other growth assets achieved mixed results with global property increasing by 3.5 per cent and international shares by 0.6 per cent while Australian real estate investment trust fell 2.7 per cent.

Morningstar's Australian Superannuation Survey said that growth superannuation funds followed this trend and also achieved mixed results in the month.

"Growth superannuation funds struggled to record a positive return over the month of March," the results said.

"The medium fund returned -0.4 per cent. Individual results feel between a low of -0.9 per cent and a high of 0.4 per cent."

Longer-term annualised results for the median growth fund were 11.8 per cent over one year, 5.8 per cent over three years, 3.2 per cent over five years and 6.9 per cent over the 10 years to March 31.

Asset allocation for super funds in the multi-sector growth category held 57.8 per cent in equities at the end of February, with 31.9 per cent in Australian equities and 25.9 per cent in international.

Allocation to defensive assets totalled 23.1 per cent while property allocation was 8.0 per cent.