Press

Norway’s $1.1tn oil fund recorded the third best quarter in its 23-year history as the world’s largest sovereign wealth investor rebounded from a difficult end to last year. The oil fund returned 9.1 per cent in the first quarter — behind the second and third quarters of 2009 — while in krone terms it was the investor’s largest ever increase with NKr738bn. Apple, Microsoft and Amazon made the biggest positive contributions to the fund’s equity performance with technology companies the best performing sector. Equities, which the fund is boosting to 70 per cent of its portfolio, returned 12.2 per cent. The strong return in the quarter made up for the final three months of 2018 when the fund posted its largest ever drop in krone terms, leading Norwegian officials to warn of the possibilities of big swings in the fund’s value, which is used to finance large parts of the country’s annual budget. - Financial Times -