By Dominic Chopping
Norway's sovereign-wealth fund returned 6.3% in the first quarter, equivalent to 1.21 trillion Norwegian kroner ($110 billion), driven by strong equity markets and a weaker krone.
Norges Bank Investment Management--the arm of the central bank that manages the world's largest sovereign-wealth fund, commonly known as the oil fund--said Thursday that the fund had a market value of NOK17.719 trillion as of March 31.
"Our equity investments had a very strong return in the first quarter, particularly driven by the tech sector," Norges Bank Investment Management Deputy Chief Executive Trond Grande said.
The Norwegian krone depreciated against several major currencies during the year, with currency movements adding NOK647 billion to the fund's value, it said.
The fund was 72.1% invested in equities, 26.0% in fixed income, 1.8% in unlisted real estate and 0.1% in unlisted renewable-energy infrastructure.
Equity investments returned 9.1% in the quarter, while fixed-income investments registered a negative return of 0.4%, unlisted real-estate investments a negative return of 0.5% and unlisted renewable energy infrastructure a negative return of 11.4%.
Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-18-24 0434ET
