NEW DELHI: Taking advantage of the weak stock markets, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) deployed nearly Rs 17,000 crore in fresh equity investments during April-June.Equities accounted for 14.6% of the fresh investment across all asset classes and underline EPFO’s reliance on stocks to generate inflation-beating returns for its nearly 30 crore members. It comes at a time when yields on central govt securities (G-secs) and state development loans (SDL), which account for more than three-fourths of EPFO’s investments, have ranged between 6.5 and 7% in recent years.EPFO’s cumulative equity corpus rose to around Rs 3.7 lakh crore at the end of June, increasing the aggregate equity exposure to 11.2% of the Rs 33.2 lakh crore investment corpus, according to data discussed by the agency’s investment committee last month. The agency is allowed to deploy 15% of its corpus in equities.When the stock market recovers, the ETF units through which investments are routed are expected to yield strong long-term gains and enable the social security organisation to announce a higher annual interest rate.In Q1, the social security organisation recorded no redemptions of these equity units, maintaining a pure accumulation strategy. Fresh deployment was led by the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) at about Rs 12,000 crore, followed by the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) at Rs 4,800 crore.Overall, of the nearly Rs 1.2 lakh crore fresh investments made during Q1, short-term debt instruments and cash equivalents absorbed the lion’s share (48%) of fresh capital, totaling around Rs 56,000 crore, through liquid mutual funds, TREPS, bank cash balances, and short-term FDs.Long-term sovereign assets, meanwhile, which are the preferred form of investment by the retirement fund body, saw nearly 30% of the fresh assets deployed (Rs 36,000 crore) during the quarter. This segment was mainly led by EPFO buying Central govt securities, including ultra-long 50-year paper maturing in 2076, and state development loans (SDLs) with yields broadly ranging between 7.4% and 8%.