Swedish portfolio holdings 2008:

Large value decrease in foreign shares and funds

Swedes owned SEK 2 552 billion worth of foreign portfolio investments at the end of last year. This is a decrease of SEK 535 billion or 17 percent compared to the previous year. Foreign portfolio assets consist of foreign shares and mutual funds as well as debt securities. The sharp downturn was mainly due to the intense stock market dive in 2008.

Swedish investors’ holdings in foreign shares and mutual funds went down a total of SEK 545 billion or 27 percent during the past year. The main reason for this was that stock prices fell all around the world. However the downturn was softened by the intense weakening of the Swedish krona’s exchange rate at the end of last year. While holdings in foreign debt securities increased, this increase was only marginal.

The USA, Great Britain and Luxembourg continue to be the countries whose securities are most interesting for Swedish investors. Despite American portfolio assets having decreased by 14 percent in value since last year, the USA is still the single largest recipient country of Swedish portfolio investments. The foreign assets’ percentage of Swedish investor’s total holdings amounted to 22 percent.

Like earlier years, the "other financial institutions" sector is the largest holdings sector of foreign portfolio investments. The sector, mainly consisting of insurance and mutual fund companies, primarily owned foreign shares and mutual funds.