Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund on Friday reported a -5.2% fiscal year return, weighed down by a ¥17 trillion ($158 billion) loss for the March 31 quarter from the global coronavirus-induced stock sell-off.
The Tokyo-based pension fund giant's portfolio ended the year at ¥150.6 trillion, its lowest level in three years.
GPIF's loss for the 12-month period came to ¥8.3 trillion, with more than ¥17 trillion in declines on its foreign and domestic stock holdings in the quarter ended March 31 erasing strong gains earlier in the year.
The final quarter of GPIF's fiscal year saw allocations to unhedged foreign bonds rise sharply to ¥34.5 trillion, or 22.2% of the portfolio, from ¥30.7 trillion or 18.1%.
The move was in line with a five-yearly review of the fund's strategic asset allocation targets, announced three months ago, that lifted the target for foreign bonds by 10 percentage points to 25% of the portfolio, while reducing the target for domestic bonds to 25% from 35%.
With the stock market sell-off, foreign equities accounted for 23.9% of the portfolio, down from 27.6% at the end of December, while domestic stocks dropped to 22.87% from 24.97%.
Elsewhere, domestic bonds accounted for 23.87% of the portfolio, down from 24.87%, while short-term assets jumped to 5.95% from 3.38%.
