Investors in Scottish Mortgage Trust smarting over its 40% drop in value this year can take some comfort that others also are feeling the pain – Norwegians.
Norway’s s sovereign wealth fund racked up a loss of £144bn (NK1.68trn) in the first half of 2022 as its bet on big tech went awry.
The fund, which handles the country’s pensions, said its value dropped by just over 14% in the half year, its biggest absolute loss since it was set up to replace the Oil Fund.
Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, was the main culprit, with its share price down almost 50% this year. Other big loss makers included Dutch silicon chip maker ASML and struggling streaming group Netflix.
The fund has been vocal in its criticism of traditional fossil fuel-based stocks and has been switching to newer technologies, but it was its old guard that stood over the past six months.
Faang stocks such as Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon are other largest holdings in the portfolio though the best performers this time included Shell ( +34%), which along with some other fossil fuel businesses, such as BP (+19%), only avoided a cull in 2019 because of the emphasis they were putting on greener technologies.
At the end of June, the fund was worth £1trn (NK11.7trn).