The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan leaned heavily on strong stock markets to report a 7.7-per-cent investment gain last year, even as returns from private markets were sluggish. The Globe's James Bradshaw writes that HOOPP's one-year results trailed the benchmark, which was 8.6 per cent. That relative underperformance was partly attributed to challenges with two specific investments -- one in infrastructure and another in private credit. But a 22.2-per-cent return from HOOPP's portfolio of publicly traded stocks, which it bulked up last year after U.S. President Donald Trump announced broad and punitive tariffs, kept the plan's investment gains near their longer-term average. Over 10 years, HOOPP's average annual return was 7.8 per cent. Net assets increased to $132-billion last year, from $123-billion a year earlier. In private credit, HOOPP's 0.9-per-cent annual return was hampered by "issuer-specific performance challenges in a single credit investment," according to Tuesday's annual report. Investors have been jittery about private credit as a number of lenders have grappled with redemptions, most recently U.S. giants Blue Owl and Blackstone.