US stock holdings rise $3.66 billion from previous quarter
The National Pension Service's US stock holdings rose in value in the third quarter, buoyed by gains in major tech stocks despite a selloff in semiconductor shares.
The pension fund held $158.74 billion in 553 US-listed companies as of the end of September, up $3.66 billion from three months earlier, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.
Its shareholdings rose 0.9 percent to 936.18 million shares. However, the portfolio's value in Korean won fell from about 239 trillion won at the end of June as the won strengthened against the dollar.
The value of its holdings in the so-called Magnificent Seven — Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Tesla — jumped 12.6 percent to $49.1 billion, and the number of shares held edged up just 0.5 percent, indicating that price gains drove most of the increase.
Microsoft led the gains, with its holding value surging 38.2 percent to $7.86 billion. Meta, Apple and Nvidia also posted double-digit increases.
Semiconductor holdings fared worse. The value of its Micron stake fell 7.4 percent, while Applied Materials, Lam Research, Intel and Broadcom also posted declines.
The NPS nevertheless added to most of its major US semiconductor positions, increasing shareholdings by 0.1 to 0.9 percent. It also bought 169,196 SanDisk shares and raised its stake in Australian data center operator IREN by 39.7 percent. Its Super Micro Computer holdings fell 35.1 percent.
The pension fund also increased its exposure to space and defense stocks, adding to its holdings in SpaceX and Rocket Lab, as well as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Palantir and RTX.
Elsewhere, it opened a position in stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group and raised its Rivian holdings by 62.5 percent. It cut its stakes in bitcoin-related companies Strategy and Coinbase by 0.7 percent and 10.1 percent, respectively.
ch0221@heraldcorp.com
