South Korea’s state pension fund and biggest institutional investor National Pension Service (NPS) has raised holdings in U.S. big-cap tech stocks such as Apple and Amazon in the third quarter despite bearish market.

According to the Form 13F submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by the NPS on Monday, the Korean state pension fund had $47.92 billion worth U.S. shares as of the third quarter, losing $590.29 million from a quarter ago.

After adjusting for the average U.S. dollar price of 1,337.98 won in the third quarter, NPS’s holdings in U.S. shares fell by $789.8 billion worth due largely to loss on valuation, rather than profit taking, as result of lackluster market performance.

Nasdaq has shed roughly 30 percent since the beginning of the year, and NPS has continuously reduced its investment in large-cap U.S. tech stocks. The trend reversed direction in the third quarter, and NPS net purchased $185.99 million worth market bellwether Apple shares.

As of the third quarter, NPS’s holdings in Apple reached the largest $3.15 billion won worth among all stocks, much larger than the second-largest holdings worth $2.29 billion in Microsoft.

Its holdings fell to $2.96 billion in the second quarter from $3.53 billion in the first quarter but returned above $3 billion in the third quarter.

Expanded investment in U.S. EV giant Tesla is also noticeable. NPS had $766.4 million worth in Tesla shares in the second quarter but purchased additional $192.7 million worth in the third quarter alone.

Holdings in e-commerce giant Amazon also increased to $1.44 billion worth from $1.28 billion.

NPS plans to expand its investment in overseas stocks in the long term. The ratio of overseas stocks on its investment portfolio will rise to 40.3 percent by 2027 from 27.8 percent this year, while that of domestic stocks will fall to 14 percent from 16.3 percent, it said earlier.

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]