The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board says its fund earned a net return of 8 per cent for its latest fiscal year.

It says the result for the year ended March 31 was helped by strong public equity market performance, gains in its private equity portfolio, as well as investments in credit, infrastructure and energy.

CPP Investments says the gains were offset in part by overall weaker performance of emerging markets compared with developed markets and lower performance of its real estate assets.

鈥淭he CPP fund鈥檚 growth this year continued the trend of reaching heights several years ahead of initial actuarial projections,鈥� CPP Investments chief executive John Graham said in statement.

鈥淪olid performance by all of the investment departments and key corporate functions helps demonstrate how our strategy is on track.鈥�

However, the fund fell short of its benchmark reference portfolios which posted a return of 19.9 per cent for the year, helped by the strength of the U.S. stock market, led by technology stocks.

CPP Investments noted its fund is significantly more diversified than the reference portfolios and designed to ensure resilience against volatility and generate more consistent returns compared with a portfolio that is mainly exposed to public equity markets.

CPP Investments says its net assets totalled $632.3 billion on March 31, up from $570.0 billion a year earlier.

The increase in net assets included $46.4 billion in net income and $15.9 billion in net transfers from the Canada Pension Plan.