Norway's sovereign wealth fund tops $1 trillion


Norway's sovereign-wealth fund, the world's biggest, topped a $1 trillion valuation after the best half-year return in its history.
The fund announced a 2.6% return on its investments in the second quarter of this year, helped by a solid performance from its stock-market portfolio.

Norges Bank Investment Management, the arm of the central bank that manages the fund, said Tuesday the quarterly return equated to 202 billion Norwegian kroner ($25.6 billion).

The total value of Norway's sovereign-wealth fund was 8.02 trillion kroner on June 30.
Norway passed the milestone despite pressure faced by sovereign-wealth funds around the world. Ultralow interest rates are crimping returns and cheap oil is cutting into the income of the largely resource-dependent countries rich enough to possess such funds.

"The stock markets have performed particularly well so far this year, and the fund's return in the two first quarters was 6.5%," Trond Grande, deputy chief executive officer of Norges Bank Investment Management, said.

"This gives a total return of 499 billion kroner, which is the best half-year return measured in Norwegian kroner in the history of the fund. We cannot expect such returns in the future. The record-high return is primarily due to the fact that the fund has become so large."

Equity investments generated a 3.4% return for the fund with fixed income and unlisted real estate providing 1.1% and 2.1% returns respectively.

NBIM said the fund had 65.1% of its reserves invested in equities on June 30 with 32.4% in fixed income and 2.5% in unlisted real estate.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/norways-sovereign-wealth-fund-tops-1-trillion-2017-08-22

This is just great so great for this country,do now what mhmm what about my own country ( In mushu voice)