Finland’s State Pension Fund (VER) has continued to increase its equity exposure at the expense of fixed income holdings, after the latter portfolio suffered its second quarterly loss.

Releasing its financial results for the three months to September, VER said assets under management had risen by €600m to €16bn as investments returned 4.1%.

However, it continued to lower its fixed income holdings – down by 4.3 percentage points since the end of December – after suffering losses of 1.7%.

While the result is an improvement on the 2% loss suffered during the second quarter, it is a marked decline on the nearly 9% return offered by the fixed income portfolio over the course of 2012.

VER has been slowly decreasing its fixed income exposure since the beginning of the current year after the portfolio returned just 0.2% in the three months to March.

As a result, equity holdings have risen from 38% to 41% over the course of the last nine months, and its ‘other’ portfolio – comprising hedge funds and commodities – has increased by one-third to €431m over the same period.

The fund’s equities returned 12.8% over the course of the third quarter, by far outperforming the 2.6% gain seen by the other investment portfolio.