South Korea's national pension fund said Friday it will closely monitor the markets to avoid any big losses from the post-Brexit turmoil, while releasing a lower-than-average rate of return for last year.

The National Pension Service, the world's third largest with 520 trillion won ($450 billion) in assets, reported 4.57 percent in the annual rate of return in 2015, lower than the average return of 4.7 percent for the 2011-2015 period, the NPS said in a statement. 


This year, the NPS aims to boost the rate of return to 5 percent by increasing investments in alternative assets in low-risk advanced countries such as Singapore, Australia and the United States, NPS Chief Investment Officer Kang Myoung-wook told Yonhap News Agency last month.

While keeping a close eye on market conditions after Britain's decision last week to leave the European Union, the NPS said in the statement it will "go defensive and protective" in operating its assets to minimize losses and achieve the 5 percent goal this year.

About $4 trillion has been wiped out from global equity values since Friday when Britain's EU exit was officially announced. Korea's benchmark KOSPI index also plunged more than 3 percent on the same day. (Yonhap)