Norway Wealth Fund Returns 0.1% After Decline in Stocks

(Bloomberg) -- Norway’s $1.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, returned 0.1% in the third quarter, after its bonds and real estate holdings offset a slight decline in stock portfolio.

The Oslo-based fund’s return was equivalent to 31 billion kroner, or $3.7 billion. Currency movements boosted the fund’s value by 22 billion kroner after the krone depreciated “somewhat” against several of the main currencies. Overall, its total return was 25 basis points higher than that of the benchmark against which it measures itself.

“The equity market continued to strengthen towards August, before dipping slightly in the second half of the quarter,” Deputy CEO Trond Grande said in the statement. “However, the fund has achieved somewhat higher returns than the market, particularly in our equity investments.”

The fund lost 0.1% on stocks, which made up 71.5% of its holdings at the end of September, and gained 0.1% on its fixed-income investments. Its unlisted real estate holdings gained 3.6%, while unlisted infrastructure investments lost 0.2%.

Created in the 1990s to invest Norway’s oil and gas revenues abroad, the fund delved into renewable infrastructure for the first time earlier this year. The move represents a landmark expansion of the list of the fund’s asset classes, which had been limited to stocks, bonds and real estate.

The Nordic nation’s new government plans to allow Norges Bank Investment Management, as the Oslo-based wealth fund is known, to invest more in renewable infrastructure and “other climate technology,” according to the coalition platform unveiled last week.

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