KUALA LUMPUR (April 23): Norges Bank, which manages Norway’s government pension fund, said the return on the fund’s equity investments was 9.1% and the return on the fixed income investments was down 0.4%, while investments in unlisted real estate returned 0.5% lower.
In a statement on April 18, the fund said the return on unlisted renewable energy infrastructure dropped 11.4%.
Norges Bank said the fund’s return was 0.1 percentage point lower than the return on the benchmark index.
It said the relative return was good for equity and fixed-income investments, but this was offset by weak results from real estate, leading to a negative result overall.
Norges Bank deputy chief executive officer Trond Grande said the bank’s equity investments had a very strong return in the first quarter, particularly driven by the technology sector.
Norges Bank said the krone weakened against several of the main currencies during the quarter.
It said the currency movements contributed to an increase in the fund’s value of 647 billion kroner (RM281.44 billion). In the first quarter, inflow into the fund amounted to 96 billion kroner.
The fund had a value of 17.72 trillion kroner as at March 31, 2024.
Meanwhile, 72.1% of the fund was invested in equities, 26% in fixed income, 1.8% in unlisted real estate, and 0.1% in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure.