Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) made a return of 9.4 per cent in the first half of 2021.

Publishing its interim results, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which is responsible for the investments of the fund, said the return of 9.4 per cent is equivalent to NOK 990bn.

The return on the fund’s equity investments was 13.7 per cent and the return on the fixed-income investments was -2.0 per cent, whereas investments in unlisted real estate returned 4.6 per cent. The return on unlisted renewable energy infrastructure was -1.9 per cent.

The fund’s return was 28 basis points higher than the return on the benchmark index.

“The equity investments had the most positive contribution to the return in the first half of the year, and especially the investments within the sectors of energy and finance. The investments in energy companies returned 19.5 per cent,” NBIM CEO, Nicolai Tangen, said.

NBIM noted that the health and technology sectors have had solid returns throughout the coronavirus pandemic, and the increase continued in the first half of the year. “Technology companies returned 16.8 per cent. Several major technology companies saw a continued increase within digital advertisement,” Tangen said.

The krone strengthened against several major currencies in course of the first half of the year. Currency movements contributed to a decrease in the fund’s value of NOK 79bn. In the first half of the year, NOK 147bn was withdrawn from the fund.

The fund had a value of NOK 11,673bn as at 30 June 2021 and 72.4 per cent of the fund was invested in equities, 25.1 per cent in fixed income, 2.4 per cent in unlisted real estate, and 0.1 per cent in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure.

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