The giant Norwegian sovereign wealth fund on Thursday reported first-quarter earnings of 1.21 trillion kroner ($109.9 billion), helped by strong returns on its investments in technology stocks.
The so-called global government pension fund, The largest sovereign wealth fund in the worldIt said its value reached 17.7 trillion kroner at the end of March.
He described the relative return during the first three months of the year as “good” for equity and fixed income investments, but noted that “this was offset by weak results from real estate, resulting in an overall negative result.”
The return on the fund’s investments in stocks in the first quarter was 9.1%, while the return on fixed income investments was -0.4% and the return on investments in unlisted real estate was -0.5%.
The Norwegian wealth fund said the return on unlisted renewable energy infrastructure was -11.4%.
The fund's return was 0.1 percentage point lower than the return of the benchmark index.
Front of the Central Bank of Norway, also known as Norges Bank, in Oslo, Norway.
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Norway's sovereign wealth fund is one of the world's largest investors, and was established in the 1990s to invest surplus revenues from the country's oil and gas sector. To date, the fund has invested money in more than 8,800 companies in more than 70 countries around the world.
The fund's equity investments delivered a “very strong return in the first quarter, driven in particular by the technology sector,” Trond Grande, executive vice president of Norges Bank Investment Management, said in a statement.
When asked by CNBC if he was concerned about the recent weakness of some US tech giants, Grande said it appears that market participants are now reevaluating their expectations for these companies.
The “Magnificent 7” includes Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla.
“We had a mag[nificent] 7 last year, it has turned into a little more than [a situation of] Mixed returns for these seven names this quarter, with Nvidia continuing to push ahead on the back of AI enthusiasm. “Then you see more weakness in other names like Tesla and Apple,” Grande told CNBC's “Street Signs Europe” on Thursday.
“So, it is clear that the market is taking a more careful look at these companies and their business models,” he added.
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