Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) saw its investments rebound in its third financial quarter, lifted by foreign stocks.
The world’s largest pension fund earned 10.7 trillion yen (US$70.38 billion) of investment income in the three months to December after losing 9.13 trillion yen in the preceding quarter when Japanese stocks slid after investors unwound yen carry trades.
Its return on investments rebounded to 4.31% from a 3.57% loss in the quarter to September.
Average return for the first three quarters of its financial year to March 31, 2025 was 4.26%, the GPIF says in a statement on February 7.
The fund’s assets under management rose 15.1% to 258.69 trillion yen as of end-2024 from 224.7 trillion yen a year ago.
Foreign equities, which account for one-quarter of the pension fund’s total investments, were the best performer in the third financial quarter with a return of 8.96%.
That was slightly below the 9% gain of the MSCI All Country World Index, the GPIF’s benchmark for foreign equity investments. The benchmark index’s gain was driven by performance of large-cap US stocks.