BOSTON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Harvard University's endowment fund, the world's largest university endowment, posted a small investment gain that bested several other top U.S. universities' returns but saw the value of the fund shrink as more was paid to university operations. Harvard Management Co said on Thursday that it earned a 2.9% return in the fiscal year that ended June 30, leaving the total endowment at $50.7 billion. A year earlier it lost 1.8% amid tumbling markets but the endowment ended at $50.9 billion. Returns from these schools are watched closely because they pioneered putting money into hedge and private equity funds. Rival Yale University returned 1.8% while the University of Pennsylvania returned 1.3%.

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Persons: N.P, Narvekar, Svea Herbst, Bayliss, Diane Craft Organizations: BOSTON, Harvard, Harvard Management, Harvard Management's, Private, Rival Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Stanford, Svea, Thomson