China’s social welfare fund is busy seeking partnership accords with investment benchmarks and overseas partners to smooth its pending trade in foreign securities as it tries to boost returns amid an estimated pension shortfall.  China’s National Council of Social Security Fund, the pension fund’s manager, signed deals last month with Standard & Poor’s and Xinhua FTSE to use their indexes as benchmarks for its US and Hong Kong equity portfolios.  The agreements, which are expected to be followed by a slew of partnership deals with global asset managers, were seen by analysts as a signal that authorities were ready to launch overseas investments but might still prefer to be cautious as these are initial steps.  "It is anticipated that the S&P 500 will be used by SSF as the tracking index for a passive index fund," the S&P said in a release, noting the gauge covers nearly 80 percent of US equities, making it a proxy of the broader market.
Pension fund seeks deals with global asset firms