Norway Oil Fund Posts Negative Return on Fixed-Income Weakness

By Dominic Chopping

Norway's sovereign-wealth fund posted a negative return in the third quarter following weakness in its fixed-income investments.

Norges Bank Investment Management--the arm of the central bank that manages the world's largest sovereign-wealth fund, commonly known as the oil fund--said Thursday that its investment portfolio logged a negative return of 0.5% in the period, with the fund's value falling by 670 billion Norwegian kroner ($71.55 billion).

"The fund's return was close to flat, ending slightly negative as rising interest rates led to weaker results on our fixed-income investments," Deputy Chief Executive Trond Grande said.

Fixed-income investments had a negative return of 3.5% in the quarter, while the fund's larger portfolio of equity investments returned 0.5%.

"Equity returns were also close to zero, but there were large differences between sectors. Energy companies rose the most, while interest-rate-sensitive sectors such as utilities and real estate fell," Grande said.

Investments in unlisted real estate investments returned 0.4% while its portfolio of unlisted renewable energy infrastructure returned 7.5%.

As of September 30, the fund had a market value of 22.014 trillion kroner, equivalent to $2.35 trillion.

During the quarter, currency headwinds reduced the fund's value by 472 billion kroner due to the appreciation of the Norwegian krone.

It said 80 billion kroner was added to the fund in the quarter after deduction of expenses.

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 22, 2026 04:54 ET (08:54 GMT)