[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s state-run National Pension Services, which oversees over 540 trillion won (US$473 billion), will pour 1 trillion won into local equities by the end of this year, the public pension fund said on Oct. 26.

In early November, the NPS will pick 12 asset management companies to run the fund who will be divided into three groups based on their investment specializations -- value stock, small and mid-cap stock and those who use quantitative stock selection techniques. 




Industry sources said the secondary KOSDAQ market will benefit from NPS’ decision as the pension fund recently abolished its rule to limit investment in small firms less than 100 billion won in market capitalization.

This will enable the NPS to invest in some 300 stocks traded on the main KOSPI and 700 stocks on the KOSDAQ.

Currently, the NPS’ allocation to domestic equities accounts for 18.3 percent, or 99.3 trillion won, of the total assets under management of 543.3 trillion won.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)