Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund, Tokyo, on Friday reported a 9.5%, or ¥19 trillion ($131 billion), gain for the quarter ended June 30, on the back of a strong rally by Japanese stocks and a weakening of the yen that boosted the value of GPIF's overseas stock and bond holdings.
The almost 10% gain for the world's largest pension fund lifted the value of its portfolio to a record ¥219.2 trillion.
Overseas equities were the quarter's biggest winner with a gain of 15.4%, driven in almost equal parts by the yen's depreciation and a continued rally by U.S. large-cap stocks.
Overseas bonds posted an 8.1% gain, largely on the strength of the yen's depreciation.
At home, domestic stocks were the powerhouse with a 14.4% gain, which Masataka Miyazono, GPIF's president, in a statement attributed to inflows from overseas investors, anticipating market reforms.
Domestic bonds, meanwhile, saw a tepid gain of 36 basis points.
Mr. Miyazono, in his statement, put the latest quarter's spectacular return into perspective, calling it "just a short-term result" and one that, statistically, could be expected to occur just once every nine years. "We will continue to operate from a long-term perspective," he said.
Allocations remained largely in line with GPIF's targets of 25% apiece for foreign and domestic stocks and bonds.
