A Woeful Performance
The National Pension Service (NPS), the nation’s top institutional investor, lost a whopping 9.96 trillion won (US$8.81 billion) from domestic stock investments in the past seven months.
According to the NPS data released by the opposition Liberty Korea Party lawmaker Yoo Jae-jung on the National Assembly's Committee on Health and Welfare, the NPS lost 9.96 trillion won (US$8.81 billion) from stock investments in the January-to-July period.
The rate of return on domestic stock investments until the end of July was -6.01 percent, down 0.71 percentage points from -5.3 percent at the end of June.
Accordingly, the aggregate value of equity shares owned by the agency stood at 123.08 trillion won (US$108.87 billion) as of end-July, also down nearly 8.44 trillion won (US$7.46 billion) from 131.52 trillion won (US$116.34 billion) at the end of last year.
According to the 2018 fund management plans, the NPS was supposed to invest 940 billion won (US$831.49 million) of surplus funds in local shares this year. However, it invested a total of 1.52 trillion won (US$1.34 billion) until the end of July, which is 580 billion won (US$513.05 million) more than the initial plan.
Yoo claimed that the loss came to 9.96 trillion won (US$8.81 billion) when combining the decreased value of owned stocks and the funds invested.