Norway's Government Pension Fund Global, Oslo, reported its assets decreased 1.6% to 6.9 trillion Norwegian kroner ($873 billion) over the three months ended June 30 as negative returns on equity and fixed-income investments, as well as a strengthening Norwegian currency, hit the fund.
The fund returned -0.9% in the second quarter of 2015, said a financial update. That compared with a 5.3% return for the three months ended March 31 — the fund's highest ever quarterly return — and 3.3% for the three months ended June 30, 2014.
For the year ended June 30, assets increased 25.9%.
“The return on fixed-income investments was affected by an increase in yields in the fund's main markets,” said Yngve Slyngstad, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, the fund's money manager, in a statement accompanying the financial update. “On the equity side, U.S. stocks pulled down the result.”