DENMARK - Danish engineers' pension fund DIP made a return on its investments of 0.5% before tax in the year to March 19, with positive returns on nominal bonds and equities in the home market offsetting a slight fall in foreign equities.

Total assets rose to DKK27.2bn (€3.7bn) from DKK27bn at the beginning of January, the fund said in an interim report.

Foreign listed shares, which make up 24% of DIP's portfolio, posted a negative return of 0.3% but better than a negative 1.1% benchmark return. Domestic equities rose 1.0% compared with the benchmark rise of 2.9%. Domestic shares account for 8% of the portfolio.

Danish nominal bonds, which have a 36% portfolio weighting, returned 1.1%.

The full-year investment return for 2006 was 8.0%, the fund reported previously, attributing the "satisfactory return" primarily to its domestic equity portfolio, which produced a return of 25.4% over the year.

DIP is owned and run entirely by its members, with four of its five board members chosen from and by the pension scheme's members, and the fourth picked by the Association of Engineers in Denmark (IDA).