Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) reported on Friday an investment loss of 1.853 trillion yen ($14.41 billion) for October-December, the fourth consecutive quarter of negative returns, due to falling bond prices in Japan and Europe.

Assets of the world’s largest pension fund fell 0.97% for the three months to 189.9 trillion yen, it said in a statement.
The loss widened from 0.88% in the previous quarter, after the Bank of Japan’s surprise tweak to its bond yield curve control in late December sparked a sell-off in the Japanese government bond market.

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

The GPIF’s foreign stock portfolio posted a loss of 0.05%, while its Japanese stock portfolio gained 3.24%.

Its Japanese bond portfolio posted a loss of 1.73%, while its foreign bond portfolio lost 5.33%.

As of end-December, Japanese bonds accounted for 26.07% of its portfolio and foreign bonds accounted for 24.59%.

Foreign equities accounted for 24.27% and domestic equities 25.07%.

During the October-December period, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2.1%, while Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 11.4%. 

Reuters