Korea’s National Pension Lost 182 Trillion Won on Stocks in 100 Days, Months After Pausing Its Own Sell Rule
South Korea’s National Pension Service lost about 182.4 trillion won, roughly $137 billion, in the value of its disclosed Korean stock stakes between June 30 and Oct. 15, a 35.3% drop and the largest on record, according to FnGuide data reported by Seoul Economic Daily on Oct. 18. The holdings, stakes of 5% or more in 287 listed companies, fell from 515.9 trillion won to 333.5 trillion won.
SK hynix shares fell from 2.65 million won to 1.262 million won over the period, a drop of about 52%, and Samsung’s fell from 334,000 won to 210,000 won, about 37%. The fund’s SK hynix holdings lost 74.2 trillion won and its Samsung holdings 56.9 trillion won, which Asia Business Daily puts at 71.8% of the total loss. As of Oct. 15 the fund owned 7.84% of Samsung and 7.32% of SK hynix.
These are paper losses on shares the fund still holds, and the drop wiped out a large part of the gains it had made through the second quarter, Asia Business Daily reports. The value of its holdings fell in 176 of the 287 companies. A few rose, led by SK Innovation, up 904.1 billion won as its share price climbed and the fund added to its stake.
The rule it set aside
Like many pension funds, the NPS has a target mix of assets and a rule that it rebalances, selling what has run up and buying what has lagged to get back to that mix. On Jan. 26, with Korean stocks surging and the fund due to sell some of them, its Fund Management Committee suspended rebalancing of domestic stocks, Seoul Economic Daily reports. It raised its target for Korean stocks from 14.4% to 14.9% that month and to 20.8% in May, then ended the suspension in late June and resumed rebalancing on July 1.
Chairman Kim Sung-joo defended the pause at a parliamentary audit on Oct. 14. Following the rule in January, he said, would have meant dumping “more than 800 billion won a day, more than 10% of KOSPI trading value,” the volume on Korea’s main stock index. “Share prices would fall, the National Pension Service would take losses, and the public would inevitably lose out as well,” he said.
Opposition lawmakers questioned the decision. Rep. Baek Jong-heon said the Korea Teachers Pension and Korea Post had both reported no cases of suspending rebalancing because of market conditions over the past decade.
What the target change did
Kim’s argument covers the pause. It says less about the second move. Lifting the target from 14.4% to 20.8% raised it by about 44%, and a rule that sells back to target has far less to sell once the target has moved up to meet the holdings. When rebalancing came back on July 1, it was measured against the new, bigger target.
That left the fund deep in two stocks going into the slide. If its Samsung and SK hynix stakes held roughly steady over the period, the losses and price drops imply the two holdings were worth about 295 trillion won at the end of June, more than half of the 515.9 trillion won in disclosed stakes. A portfolio built that way rises fast when chips run and falls fast when they don’t, and the second and third quarters showed both halves back to back.
The fund was not frozen through the drop. It raised its stake in GS Engineering & Construction from 7.82% to 12.88% and in Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance from 9.42% to 12.37%, and cut Samsung Biologics from 10.27% to 6.56%, according to BusinessKorea, which describes the additions as dividend-paying value stocks. Those were small trades in a portfolio that belongs to Korea’s future retirees.
Sources
- Seoul Economic Daily: Korea’s Pension Fund Loses 182 Trillion Won on Domestic Stocks (Lee Deok-yeon, Oct. 18, 2026)
- Asia Business Daily: NPS Stock Valuation Plunges 182 Trillion Won in 100 Days (Oct. 18, 2026)
- BusinessKorea: NPS Domestic Stock Holdings Lose 182 Trillion Won in Value (Oct. 2026)
Discover more from Bitter Fool
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.