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The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in the first quarter bought many technology stocks as they fell while automakers unloaded, Barron's reported Sunday, citing market data and a regulatory filing.
The fund, known as CPP Investments, had total assets as of March 31 of $462.5 billion dollars, making public pensions one of the largest in the world.
CPP Investments added 7.1 million shares of Apple stock (Nasdaq: Apple) to raise its ownership stake in the iPhone maker to 11.5 million shares, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
During the first three months of the year, Apple (AAPL) stock fell 11%, in contrast to the Standard & Poor's 500 (SP500) index's 10% gain.
Apple (AAPL) shares rose 15% this quarter, outpacing the market index's 1.8% gain.
CPP Investments also purchased an additional 454,500 shares in electric car maker Tesla (Nasdaq: Tesla) in the first quarter, bringing the total number of its shares to 979,800 shares. Tesla (TSLA) shares fell 29% in the first quarter and are up 1% so far in the second quarter, which ends in June.
The public pension in the first quarter added 1.7 million American depositary receipts to Chinese electric car maker NIO (New York Stock Exchange: New) to end the period with 3.1 million ADRs. Interest rates on NIO (NIO) stock in the first quarter fell by 50%, and rose by 7.3% during the current quarter.
CPP Investments reduced its holdings in Ford (New York Stock Exchange: F) by 4.5 million shares, ending the first quarter at 1.3 million shares. It also reduced its stake in General Motors (New York Stock Exchange: General Motors) to 691,600 shares from 1 million.
Ford (F) advanced 8.9% in the first quarter and is down 8.5% in the current quarter. General Motors ( GM ) stock jumped 26% during the first three months of the year, and is up another 1% in the second quarter so far.