TheStar
PETALING JAYA: The Employees Provident Fund’s (EPF) investment income rose 7.7% to RM4.11bil for its first quarter ended March 31 from the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, boosted by its equities investments.
It said in a statement yesterday that income from equities rose 51.2% to RM1.06bil from RM698.21mil in the preceding quarter.
Other major income contributors were loans and bonds (RM1.59bil) and Malaysian Government Securities (MGS - RM1.24bil), it said. The EPF invested RM66.79bil in equities.
Chief executive officer Datuk Azlan Zainol said: “The EPF continued to remain vigilant in its equities investment in light of the global economic uncertainties that have carried well into 2008. Through effective management of our substantial equity portfolio, we were able to reap the benefits from stocks that delivered high yields.”
On the EPF’s investment strategy, he said a new category of the fund’s equities investment portfolio was the exchange traded funds, which made up 0.2% of its total equities investment.
The EPF’s total fund size now stands at RM320.81bil, with 39.1% (RM125.34bil) invested in loans and bonds and 32.4% (RM104.03bil) in MGS.
For loans and bonds, 85.4% of the funds were invested in high-grade companies with AAA and AA rating, a slight increase of 0.5% from the previous quarter.
The remaining 14.6% was invested in companies of other rating categories, it said.
For its MGC investment, 60.9% would mature in one to five years, 31.1% between six and 10 years, and 8% between 11 and 20 years.
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