Even as the domestic stock market continued to weaken due to the shock of the global semiconductor plunge in July, the valuation of the National Pension Service's US stocks continued to increase.
According to the financial investment industry on the 13th, the National Pension Service announced in a report submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the 12th local time that it was investing in 553 listed U.S. stocks as of the end of September and that the value of its stocks amounted to $158.74 billion (about 211 trillion won).
Compared to the end of the previous quarter (552, $155.08 billion), the number of stocks increased by one, and the valuation increased by $3.66 billion (about 4.9 trillion won).
However, unlike the end of June when the won-dollar exchange rate soared, the won's strength has been noticeable since then, so the valuation when converted into won is calculated to be less than the end of the second quarter (approximately 239 trillion won).
The number of shares held increased by 0.9% from 928.05 million shares to 936.18 million shares.
In particular, the holdings of seven major tech stocks, known as the ‘Magnificent 7 (M7)’, including NVIDIA, Apple, Alphabet (A and C shares combined), Microsoft (MS), Amazon, Meta, and Tesla, increased significantly.
The total number of shares held in the seven stocks increased by only 0.5%, from 153.08 million shares to 15382 shares, but the valuation jumped by $5.5 billion (12.6%), from $43.6 billion to $49.1 billion.
The stock whose valuation increased the most was Microsoft, whose valuation increased by $2.17 billion (38.2%) from $5.68 billion to $7.86 billion while the number of shares held increased by 0.5%.
Next, Nvidia ($1.48 billion, +14.6%), Apple ($1.43 billion, +15.6%), and Meta ($800 million, +29.3%) showed the largest increase in stock valuation.
This is interpreted as a result of the relative strength of U.S. big tech stock prices in the second half of this year.
On the other hand, investment performance in the semiconductor industry was not good.
The number of Micron shares held by the National Pension Service increased by about 0.4%, but its valuation decreased by $245.46 million (7.4%) from $3.33146 billion at the end of the previous quarter to $3.08601 billion at the end of the third quarter.
The value of stocks held in stocks such as Applied Materials ($410 million, -29.1%), Lam Research ($350 million, -24.1%), Broadcom ($240 million, -6.6%), and Intel ($190 million, -13.3%) also decreased significantly.
The National Pension Service increased the number of shares it holds in most major U.S. semiconductor stocks by 0.1 to 0.9 percent, using the decline in stock prices as an opportunity to increase its share. However, the number of shares held by Super Micro Computer was reduced by 35.1% from 99,868 shares to 64,783 shares.
Investments in space development-related stocks also continued.
In the case of Space
The number of shares held by Rocket Lab also increased by about 5% from 681,812 shares to 716,192 shares, but during the same period, the valuation of shares held decreased by about 28.0% from $69.31 million to $49.9 million.
The National Pension Service also maintained its policy of expanding investment in U.S. defense companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Palantir, and RTX, increasing the number of shares held by as much as 1.1%.
On the other hand, the number of shares held by Bitcoin-related companies Strategy and Coinbase Global decreased by 0.7% and 10.1%, respectively. The number of shares held by game producer Roblox also decreased by about 7.4%.
In addition, the number of stock holdings in News Corp, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), a leading conservative media outlet in the U.S., was slightly increased from 61,000 to 64,000 shares, and the stock holdings in Foxcorp (common stock + preferred stock), the parent company of Fox News, were reduced by about 4.1% from 128,000 to 121,000 shares.
As of the end of the first quarter of this year, the stock that accounted for the largest portion of the National Pension Service's U.S. stock portfolio was Nvidia ($11.65 billion, 7.34%).
Apple ($10.55 billion, 6.64%), Alphabet (A shares + C shares, $8.15 billion, 5.13%), Microsoft ($7.86 billion, 4.95%), Amazon ($3.61 billion, 3.31%), and Broadcom ($3.39 billion, 2.14%) followed.
