OSLO, Norway (AFP) — Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, posted both record quarterly gains and losses in the first half, yo-yoing on market volatility during the COVID-19 pandemic.

After haemorrhaging 1.35 trillion kroner (117 billion euros) in the first quarter of the year when the pandemic put the brakes on the world economy, the fund saw its value soar by 1.10 trillion kroner in the second quarter as markets recovered, boosted by budgetary and monetary policies.

“The first quarter was historically the fund’s worst quarter in terms of returns” in Norwegian kroner, the deputy chief executive of the fund, Trond Grande, said as he presented first-half results.

“Meanwhile, the second quarter was the most robust quarter ever,” he added.

The fund, created in the 1990s to help grow the State’s oil revenues, nonetheless lost 188 billion kroner (18 billion euros, US$21 billion) in the first half of the year.

Its overall value, which totalled 10.4 trillion kroner (989 billion euros) at the end of June, depends on the portfolio’s returns as well as costs, currency rates, and government withdrawals such as recently done to ease the economic impact of the pandemic.