Chinese pension fund gains increase sixfold

The Chinese national pension fund’s investment gains increased almost sixfold in 2007 from a year earlier as returns from its stock holdings more than tripled, the Beijing-based fund said.

Investment income at the National Council for Social Security Fund jumped to 112.9 billion yuan ($16.5 billion) last year from 19.6 billion yuan a year earlier, the fund said in a statement posted on its website.

The fund almost doubled the investments it made through external fund managers to 206.9 billion yuan last year from 2006, according to the statement. The domestic stock market rallied in 2007 although the CSI 300 index, which tracks yuan-denominated shares traded in Shanghai and Shenzhen, is down 47% this year.

The fund made 47.1% of its investments last year through external asset managers, both domestic and overseas, it said. Direct investments made up the rest.

The Chinese pension fund had directly invested 27 billion yuan in stocks at the end of 2007, up 10.8% from the beginning of the year. It more than tripled its holdings in short- and long-term bonds to 2.8 billion yuan in the period, the statement said.