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Bloomberg
The Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) US equity portfolio declined in value for the first time in more than a year, reflecting the market rout caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
The central bank, which has amassed vast holdings of foreign currency due to interventions to weaken the franc, had $94 billion invested in US stocks at the end of March, according to its regulatory filing. That is down 3% from the $97.5 billion valuation at the end of December and takes it back to the level at the end of September last year. The S&P 500 declined one fifth in the first quarter.
A spokeswoman for the central bank declined to comment.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filing is one of the few publicly available glimpses into the SNB’s individual equity investments. As of end March, it held stakes in 2,480 US companies, including tech heavyweights like Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc.
The SNB’s strategy is to mirror indexes and to invest according to the criteria of security, liquidity and return.