Taipei, Nov. 3 (CNA) Funds managed by the Ministry of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Funds posted the fourth highest gains in history in September as the global stock markets enjoyed a significant performance in the month, the bureau said Monday.
According to the bureau, the labor funds it managed recorded NT$216.7 billion (US$7.08 billion) in September, only trailing NT$277.8 billion in August, NT$242.2 billion in March 2024, and NT$240.2 billion in November 2020.
Accumulated gains, which reflect increases in the value of assets in the funds’ portfolios and/or increases in income on investments, rose to NT$558.8 billion in the first nine months of this year after the strong showing in September, the bureau said.
In September, the Taiex, the weighted index on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, surged 12.09 percent, and the MSCI World Index even jumped 18.44 percent largely on a boom of artificial intelligence development as well as a rate cut cycle kicked off by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
According to the bureau, 57.67 percent of the investments made by the labor funds were made overseas and the remaining 42.33 percent was invested domestically.
The combined value of the funds managed by the bureau, including the Labor Pension Fund, the Labor Retirement Fund, the Labor Insurance Fund, the Employment Insurance Fund, and the Arrear Wage Payment Fund, which covers payouts for workers’ wages, pension and severances, totaled NT$7.44 trillion as of the end of September.
Based on that value, the NT$558.8 billion in gains represented a rate of return of 8.14 percent in the first nine months of this year, according to the bureau.
The value of assets in the new Labor Pension Fund, launched in 2015, totaled NT$4.92 trillion at the end of September, the highest of any fund, and its rate of return so far this year to the end of September was 7.69 percent, the bureau said.
The Labor Retirement Fund, which has been in place since 1984, had about NT$1.04 trillion in assets as of the end of September, with a rate of return of 12.57 percent, the bureau said.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Public Service Pension Fund said Monday that the Public Service Pension Fund managed by the bureau recorded NT$78.87 billion in gains in the first nine months of this year, with a rate of return of 7.80 percent.
