OSLO, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Norway's sovereign wealth fund made record returns on investment in the first quarter of 2019, the fund said on Friday.
The fund, formally known as the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) and ranked as the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund, returned 9.1 percent, or 738 billion kroner (84.9 billion U.S. dollars), in the first quarter of this year, it said in a statement.
Equity, fixed-income and unlisted real estate investments returned 12.2 percent, 2.9 percent and 1.7 percent respectively in the quarter.
"This is the fund's best quarterly return measured in kroner ever," said Yngve Slyngstad, chief executive officer of Norges Bank Investment Management, which is the part of the Norwegian central bank that is responsible for managing the fund.
"As a major equity investor we must be prepared for large fluctuations in the fund's market value in line with developments in global stock markets," he said.
Global stock markets had a strong recovery in the first quarter of the year after a weak development during the last part of 2018. The fund's investments in technology companies saw the highest returns with 17.6 percent, according to the fund.
The fund had a market value of 8,938 billion kroner as at March 31 2019, of which 69.2 percent were invested in equities, 2.8 percent in unlisted real estate and 28 percent in fixed income, it said. (1 U.S. dollar = 8.6916 kroner)
