Azerbaijan's SOFAZ Betting On Stocks: Portfolio Balloons To $17 Billion (PHOTO)

(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 23. The portfolio of shares of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) has grown sharply over the past two years, exceeding $17 billion, the well-known Azerbaijani expert-economist, Ingilab Ahmadov said on his social media page, Trend reports.

"Currently, shares make up 25.7 percent of the total investment portfolio of the fund, taking the third place after bonds (38.9 percent) and gold (28.8 percent). Last year, the main part of the fund's revenue, in the amount of six percent, was provided by shares. The cumulative return on shares since 2012 was 211.3 percent," he explained.

The economist emphasized that shares, especially in the dotcom segment, are the most risky investments, and the annual increase in their share in the conditions of an unstable global investment environment requires both knowledge and experience, as well as considerable courage from the management of the fund.

"The largest sovereign fund that invests in the stock market is the Norwegian pension fund with assets of $2 trillion. Shares make up 70.6 percent of its assets. The income from the investment management of the Norwegian fund is twice the income from the oil and gas sector," Ahmadov noted.

According to him, recent years show that the growing dynamics of the SOFAZ stock portfolio allow us to state the following: The Fund intends to achieve similar successes in this direction.

"As you can see from the graph, the Fund bets on the stock market, gradually reducing the share of fixed income bonds and annually increasing the weight of this instrument in the portfolio," he added.

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