Indonesia’s $48 billion social security fund BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, the country’s largest institutional investor, aims to boost the share of local equities in its portfolio to up to 20% within three years, with a recent market crash creating room to invest in undervalued shares, a top official told Reuters on Friday.
Edwin Ridwan, the agency’s director of investment development, said that since the Indonesian market slump, the state-owned fund has been increasing its investment gradually in stocks with big market capitalisation.
“These are the conditions where people are selling, if we look at history … whenever the market overshoots, people are selling, it’s the best time to buy,” he said in an interview, referring to financial crises of 1998 and 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The window has started to open up for us to increase our exposure to equities, because we need volume, we need liquidity, and with everybody selling, that liquidity is being provided.”
BPJS Ketenagakerjaan currently has about $4.8 billion of assets under its management directly in the stock market or through mutual funds, the company said. The largest portion is invested in bonds, and the rest in deposits and other instruments.
Indonesia’s stock market tanked when it reopened on Tuesday after an extended holiday break, triggering a 30-minute trading halt in response to global turmoil over steep U.S. trade tariffs announced days earlier. The market has since regained some of its losses.
Reuters
