by ALIFAH ZAINUDDIN

THE Employees Provident Fund (EPF) reported higher income in the second quarter (2Q) ended June 30, 2017, as market conditions continued to improve during the period.

The pension fund saw a 36.4% year-on-year increase in its quarterly investment income to RM11.5 billion against RM8.4 billion posted a year ago.

CEO Datuk Shahril Ridza Ridzuan said the promising 2Q performance was mainly attributed to better market conditions, which allowed all of EPF’s asset classes under its portfolio to record “healthy” growth for the quarter under review.

“While we recorded significant improvements in year-on- year performance in both the preceding and current quarters, there is a slowdown in momentum which saw corporate profits normalising in 2Q 2017. We, therefore, expect a moderation in income growth for upcoming quarters,” Shahril said in a statement released today.

Equities continued to be the main profit driver with a 53.7% or RM6.18 billion contribution to the RM11.5 billion investment income recorded in the 2Q – 61.5% higher than the RM3.8 billion posted in the corresponding quarter in 2016.

This was followed by fixed income instruments with a 37.3% contribution, while real estate and infrastructure as well as money market instruments contributed 6.2% and 2.6% respectively.