The Mandatory Provident Fund suffered a loss of 0.11 per cent in the second quarter because of the poor performance of the stock market, according to Standard & Poor's Fund Services.
Global stock markets slumped by double digits during the quarter, wiping out most of the its early gains, S&P said.
'In our opinion, as world central banks tightened, we witnessed a dramatic re-pricing of risk as market participants unloaded riskier assets on fears of both a dramatic slowdown in global GDP [gross domestic product] and EPS [earnings per share] growth,' said Cynthia Case, S&P's director of fund services.
Despite the second-quarter loss, the MPF's average return since the scheme's inception in February 2001 was 20.84 per cent.
The MPF schemes provide coverage for Hong Kong's 2.2 million workers. Employer and employee each contribute 5 per cent of the latter's salary to the fund.
The decline in global stock markets in the second quarter hit stock funds, which recorded an average loss of 0.71 per cent.
The loss trimmed their overall gain to 32.1 per cent.