Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund, Tokyo, saw a strong rebound from coronavirus-related losses earlier in the year, reporting a record 8.3% investment gain for the fiscal first quarter ended June 30.
The fund's portfolio ended the latest quarter at ¥162.1 trillion ($1.51 trillion).
Masataka Miyazono, GPIF's president, in a statement posted on the fund's website Friday said the resumption of economic activity around the globe as coronavirus lockdowns eased, together with proactive fiscal and monetary policy support, spurred "significant" gains for stocks at home and abroad.
With the prior quarter's vicious bear market giving way to a powerful bull market, GPIF's quarterly investment gain, at ¥12.5 trillion, effectively clawed back almost 75% of the fund's ¥17 trillion loss for the quarter ended March 31, the final quarter of its latest fiscal year.
GPIF's foreign equity holdings — which grew to 27.5% of the fund's portfolio from 23.9% at the end of March — added ¥7.5 trillion, or 60% of total investment gains.
Domestic equities, which climbed to 24.4% of the portfolio from 22.9% at the end of March, delivered another ¥4 trillion, or 32%, of investment gains.
Unhedged foreign bonds, which saw its weight in the portfolio slip to 21.8% from 22.2% at the close of the prior quarter, delivered ¥1.1 trillion in investment gains.
Domestic bonds — which under recently introduced accounting rules include both yen-denominated short-term assets as well as yen-hedged foreign bonds — accounted for 26.3% of GPIF's portfolio and suffered a loss for the quarter of ¥137 billion.
GPIF reported a 23.9% weighting for domestic bonds, a 6% weighting for short-term assets and 1.2% in yen-hedged foreign bonds at its March 31 fiscal year close, for a total — under the new accounting rules — of 31%.
