South Korea’s state-run pension fund made small gains on its Won236,000bn (£106bn, €120bn, $150bn) of assets last year as it swiftly reduced its exposure to riskier assets by increasing bond investments and cutting equities holdings.

The National Pension Service, the world’s fifth-largest pension fund, posted a Won16.6bn profit with investment returns of 0.01 per cent, helped by its 81.7 per cent bond exposure. It is a surprisingly good performance compared with other big pension funds, which suffered big losses as the global financial crisis battered the stock market.