Saturday, August 29, 2015

The world's biggest sovereign wealth fund is getting roughed up

Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the biggest in the world, is getting chewed. The $840 billion fund lost more than 5% on its investments in the past month, the fund's CEO, Yngve Slyngstad, said, according to Bloomberg's Saleha Mohsin.

That would be about $40 billion. Somewhat notably, this news comes shortly after the huge sell-off in Chinese stocks. "Slyngstad has been seeking to expand the fund's investments in China, which he sees as key to capturing more of global growth," according to Bloomberg's Mohsin.

 "After years of lobbying, the fund earlier in 2015 had its quota for investments in Chinese A shares lifted to $2.5 billion from $1.5 billion. It had about $27 billion invested in China and Hong Kong at the end of last year."

 Additionally, the fund reportedly posted an $8.7 billion loss in the second quarter this year, the first decline in three years.Chinese stocks recently saw a five-day, 20%-plus losing streak following the devaluation of the yuan. Then, in the final 45 minutes of trade on Thursday, stocks rallied incredibly and closed with gains of over 5%, followed by another rally on Friday.

 Nevertheless, the Shanghai Composite is still down about 40% from its June 12 peak and down 7.9% this week alone. People familiar with the matter, who asked to not be identified, told Bloomberg that China's government intervened on Thursday, aiming to stabilize the stocks before the September 3 military parade celebrating the World War II victory over Japan.

finance.yahoo.com

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