Norway’s US$1.70 trillion sovereign wealth fund returned 8.6%, or US$138 billion, in the first half as stocks surged.

Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which handles Norway’s fossil-fuel wealth, saw investments in equities gain 12% in the six months through June, it said in a statement on Wednesday. The fund underperformed its benchmark by 0.04 percentage point, NBIM said, with real estate continuing to weigh on returns.

Created in the 1990s to invest Norway’s oil and gas revenues abroad, the fund is the world’s biggest single owner of equities. It invests according to a strict mandate from the Finance Ministry, measuring itself against a benchmark index based on the FTSE Global All Cap Index for equities and Bloomberg Barclays indices for fixed income. The bulk of NBIM’s capital is in publicly listed equities.

“Equity investments gave a very strong return in the first half of the year,” chief executive officer Nicolai Tangen said on Wednesday. “The result was mainly driven by technology stocks, due to increased demand for new solutions in artificial intelligence.”

Fixed-income investments were down 1%, as was the value of unlisted real estate holdings. Unlisted renewable energy infrastructure dropped 18%, the fund said. The fund had a higher share of short-maturity bonds than the benchmark index, which contributed positively, it said.

After gaining in the first half, global stock markets have dipped in recent weeks and remain on edge. The outlook for US Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts, as well as lukewarm results from tech giants such as Amazon.com, Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc have fed the volatility.

NBIM said on Tuesday that it pared its stakes in Meta Platforms Inc, Novo Nordisk A/S and ASML Holding NV - all among its top 10 holdings - during the first half of the year.

The fund had traditionally given an annual update on the contents of its portfolio, but will do so twice a year going forward, Tangen said. Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Nvidia Corp were its three biggest equity investments at the end of June.

With stakes in over 8,800 companies worldwide, NBIM has been stepping up efforts to use use its clout to influence them, specifically on issues related to climate change, gender diversity on boards of directors and executive pay.

  - Bloomberg