The Government Pension Fund Global, Oslo, returned 5.9% in the first quarter, driven by positive equity market returns and supportive currency movements.
Norway's sovereign wealth fund said Friday the return equated to 893 billion Norwegian kroner ($86 billion). The return in the first quarter of 2022 was -4.9%.
Assets increased 15% to 14.29 trillion kroner, or about $1.38 trillion, in the three-month period ended March 31.
Equity investments returned 7.4% in the quarter. The fund had a 70.1% allocation to equities as of March 31. In the first quarter of 2022, the exposure returned -5.2%.
"The equity investments had the most positive contribution to the return in the quarter. The rise of the equity market was to a great extent driven by the technology and consumer discretionary sector," Trond Grande, deputy CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, the manager of the fund, said in a news release.
In the quarter the krone depreciated against several of the main currencies, meaning that the currency movements contributed to a considerable increase in the fund's value.
The fund's fixed-income exposure gained 2.7% for the first quarter of the year.
The allocation to fixed income stood at 27.3% The fund also had a 2.4% allocation to unlisted real estate, and 0.1% allocation to unlisted renewable energy infrastructure. Unlisted real estate lost 1% in the quarter, while renewable energy infrastructure returned -3.8%.
In the first quarter of 2022, fixed income returned -4.8%. Unlisted real estate returned 4.1% and unlisted renewable energy infrastructure returned -3.3%.
