OSLO, May 3 — Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world, more than covered the losses its suffered last year with a record performance in the first three months of this year.

The fund, which receives the state’s oil revenues to manage in order to finance Norway’s generous welfare state when its oil and gas wells run dry, earned a return of 9.1 per cent on its investments in the first quarter.

At 738 billion kroner (RM348 billion) "this is the fund’s best quarterly return measured in kroner ever”, its manager Yngve Slyngstad said in a statement.

The result more than compensated for a loss of 485 billion kroner the fund, managed by the Norwegian central bank, registered last year due to weak global stock markets.

"As a major equity investor we must be prepared for large fluctuations in the fund’s market value in line with developments in global stock markets,” added Slyngstad.

The total value of the fund stood at just above US$1 trillion at the end of March. — AFP