“Our robust performance is attributable to buoyant markets and effective management,” says Folketrygdfondet CEO Kjetil Houg.
Folketrygdfondet invests in equities and fixed-income instruments in Norway and the other Nordic countries. The return on the equity portfolio was 8.4% in Q1, outperforming the equities benchmark index by 0.3 percentage points. The first-quarter return on the fixed-income portfolio was 1.4%, 0.1 percentage points above the fixed-income benchmark.
Overall, Folketrygdfondet outperformed the market by 0.2 percentage points.
The strong stock market gains seen in the first quarter of 2019 were preceded by a sharp drop in the last quarter of 2018.
“Folketrygdfondet is a long-term investor. Over the past five years, Folketrygdfondet has achieved an average annual return of 8.0%, 1.0 percentage points higher than the return on the benchmark index,” says Kjetil Houg.