Positive return on the fund's investments

The fund’s market value increased by 1,980 billion kroner to 17,745 billion kroner in the first half of 2024. The fund’s return for the period was 8.6 percent, or 1,478 billion kroner, which is 0.04 percentage point less than the return on the benchmark index.

CEO Nicolai Tangen and Deputy CEO Trond Grande presented the fund's first half 2024 results at the Norwegian democracy festival Arendalsuka. They discussed how the market has developed so far this year, and how this has affected the fund's results. Chief Governance and Compliance Officer Carine Smith Ihenacho also presented our new initiatives towards the companies we invest in. The press conference was in Norwegian.

The fund's return in the first half of 2024

8.6%
1,478
billion kroner

 

The Government Pension Fund Global returned 8.6 percent, or 1,478 billion kroner, in the first half of 2024. This was 0.04 percentage point less than the return on the benchmark index.

Return by asset class

The equity investments had a first strong half, where tech stocks in particular contributed to the positive return. The return on fixed-income investments were affected by the inflation which held at higher levels than expected. Employment and economic growth surprised to the upside, especially in the US. led to interest rates remaining higher than expected.

The negative return on unlisted real estate was driven mainly by investments in the US office sector. Values here were negatively affected by higher vacancy and a persistently high policy rate. The return on the renewable energy infrastructure portfolio comprises net income from power sales and changes in the value of the investments. A higher cost of capital adversely affected the value of the investments during the period.
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The fund's market value at the end of the first half of 2024

17,745
billion kroner

The fund’s market value increased by 1,980 billion kroner to 17,745 billion kroner in the first half of 2024.

Equities
72.0%
of the fund
Fixed income
26.1%
of the fund
Unlisted real estate
1.7%
of the fund
Unlisted infrastructure
0.1%
of the fund

See every single investment

You can search in all of the fund's investments by country, asset class and sector. This information is available for every year since our first investment in 1998. From now on, the overview is updated twice a year.

We are already the world's most transparent fund, but now we are increasing our transparency even further. From now on, everyone will be able to find an updated overview of all our investments on a half-yearly basis.
Nicolai Tangen
CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management

Strong first half for equity investments

Technology stocks delivered a very strong return for the period. The sector benefited from strong demand for new AI solutions from the biggest internet and software companies and their semiconductor suppliers. Robust global economies and an increase in consumer borrowing resulted in higher bank revenue for the financials sector. Health care stocks benefited from demand for health services, positive results from a number of major clinical studies, and increased demand for innovative treatments and technologies.

Consumer staples, real estate and basic materials delivered the weakest returns for the period.
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Our voting in first half 2024

The first half of the year is the busy season for voting, with more than two thirds of companies’ annual shareholder meetings taking place between April and June.

90,449 votes at shareholder meetings

Voting is one of our most important tools of influence as an owner. We vote to express our views as an owner, promote long-term value creation by companies and safeguard the fund's assets. We voted on 90,449 resolutions at 8,277 shareholder meetings in the first half of 2024.

We have published a summary of our voting in the first half of the year

Here, we look at trends and outcomes on key topics such as board composition and executive pay. We also discuss how sustainability issues are reflected in our voting and how we are pushing for progress on climate risk.

Explore the full report

Read more about the investments, results and management in the first half of 2024, including the financial statements.

Additional information

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