NPS Fund Shrinks 182 Trillion Won in July as Korean Stocks Slide

South Korea's National Pension Service (NPS) fund assets decreased by 182 trillion won, or around $133.74 billion, in July, as the domestic stock market experienced a sharp decline. This reduction in assets brought the fund to a level last seen in April, with a 10% drop in total assets to 1,684 trillion won from 1,866 trillion won in June.

The decline was primarily driven by a significant decrease in the value of domestic equities, with the NPS's holdings falling by 124 trillion won to 419 trillion won, reflecting the KOSPI's drop from 8,470 to 6,590. The overall fund's performance was further impacted by lower bond valuations due to rising interest rates and changes in the value of overseas assets.

Despite these challenges, the NPS attributed part of the fund's strong performance to solid earnings from domestic semiconductor companies. The KOSPI had still managed to gain 56.51% year-to-date, with the NPS's domestic equity portfolio returning 60.11%, outperforming the index by 3.60 percentage points.

Brief written by urgent.news from BusinessKorea's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.