Finland’s Etera saw its listed equity portfolio boost returns for the first half of 2015 to 3.7%, as its solvency level continued to recover.

The pension mutual said assets under management were approaching €6bn by the end of June, while year-to-date returns rose further to 4.2% when taking into account results from July.

Stefan Björkman, the provider’s managing director, praised its continued active investment in domestic markets, highlighting its stakes in property and corporate bonds. Currently, 40% of Etera’s assets are invested in Finland.

Listed equities were the provider’s best performer during the first six months of the year, retuning 8.5% compared to 9.6% for the first half of 2014. However, returns from equities as a whole outpaced 2014’s results by 0.9 percentage points, standing at 7.8.

Its fixed income portfolio remained flat, returning 2.4%, while property dropped slightly year-on-year to return 2%.

The mutual also continued to see improvements to its solvency level after questions over its future viability as a standalone entity emerged in late 2013.

At the time, Etera reported a solvency level of 16.2%, which has improved to 17.2% by the end of June.

Rival pension provider Ilmarinen saw returns of 6.2% over the first six months of the year, and Varma reported returns of 4.3%