Japan's GPIF posts $12 billion Q2 investment loss on market downturn

TOKYO :Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) reported on Friday an investment loss of 1.722 trillion yen ($11.64 billion) in July-September, the third consecutive quarter of negative returns.

The loss came as monetary tightening in the United States as well as in Europe hit bond prices, while fears of recession weighed on global stock markets, GPIF said.

The world's largest pension fund lost 0.88 per cent for the three months, trimming its overall assets to 192.097 trillion yen, it said in a statement.

The loss narrowed from 1.91 per cent in the previous quarter.

The fund is closely watched by global financial markets because of its mammoth size.

During the July-September period, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 6.7 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 1.7 per cent.

The GPIF's foreign stock portfolio posted a loss of 0.49 per cent, while its Japanese stock portfolio had a loss of 0.84 per cent.

Its Japanese bond portfolio posted a loss of 0.79 per cent, while its foreign bond portfolio lost 1.54 per cent.

As of end-September, Japanese bonds accounted for 27.26 per cent of its portfolio and foreign bonds accounted for 25.04 per cent. Foreign equities accounted for 23.86 per cent and domestic equities 23.84 per cent.

($1 = 147.8800 yen)