Khaberni - Global market volatility and currency price effects pose increasing challenges to the largest sovereign wealth funds, revealing significant losses despite diversified investments spread across various international sectors.
The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world, announced on Thursday that it sustained losses worth 1270 billion kroner (about $135 billion) during the first quarter of 2026, due to the rise in the value of the Norwegian currency and difficulties in market conditions.
According to "France Press", at the end of March, the fund, financed by Norwegian oil revenues and investing in diverse asset categories around the world, was valued at about 19998 billion kroner (about $2.1 trillion).
Trond Grande, the vice president of the fund, stated in a report: "This result reflects a quarter marked by tough market conditions. We observed a limited impact on bond and real estate investments, but the decline in stocks, particularly in major U.S. technology companies, was the decisive factor."
The fund explained that the rise of the Norwegian krone against a number of major currencies contributed to a reduction in its value by about 646 billion kroner during the period.
The fund invests in about 8500 companies globally, and owns on average about 1.5% of all publicly listed companies worldwide.
The fund's quarterly return was -1.9%, affected by the negative performance of stocks (-2.6%), which constitute 70.2% of its total investments.
Bonds, which represent 27.6% of the assets, had a negative return of -0.2%, while real estate investments, representing 1.8% of the assets, achieved a positive return of +1.2%.
Investments in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure, representing 0.4% of the fund's assets, registered a return of -1.9%.
