Swedes’ fund savings are at record levels, and many choose to invest in global funds with broad risk diversification. But as the holdings are largely made up of American tech companies, which gave the stock market a cold shower last week, the question is raised as to how safe they really are.
– They are huge and very important, says economics expert Claes Hemberg.
The reporting season for the tech giants kicked off last week, and several American tech companies went backwards on the stock market after Tesla reported a halved profit and reduced income on sales in the second quarter.
And now concerns are being raised that tougher times may be ahead for the tech sector, when four other giants in Apple, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft are to present their results this week.
But even though they are on the other side of the Atlantic, the development of the tech giants may affect Swedes’ savings.
Has increased by 20 percent in 20 years
This as a large part of the record-high fund saving is placed in equity funds in general and global funds in particular – which are largely made up of the American tech companies.
– 20 years ago the tech companies were small, maybe only one percent of all our money went there, and maybe it was Apple and to some extent Google. But today it is about 20 percent of the global funds or the large funds that Swedes put their savings into, says economics expert Claes Hemberg.
And he believes that it is because the tech giants are a power factor in the world market.
– They are huge and very important, in the same way that perhaps the oil industry was 50 years ago or the energy sector has been in different phases, he says.
AP7: “Not concerned in the long term”
And one of the global funds that many Swedes are influenced by is AP7’s equity fund, which with 24 percent of the holdings in the tech sector manages part of the pension savings for as many as 5.5 million Swedes.
But even if she agrees that the concentration of American tech companies can be questioned, Lena Fahlén, head of asset management at AP7, believes that their long-term perspective means that you as a private person do not need to worry significantly.
– The American companies make up a large part of the world index, and we invest as an index. Then the concentration on American companies has increased in recent years as a result of above all the American tech companies which have performed incredibly strongly. But basically we have a well-diversified portfolio with almost 3,000 companies, she says, and continues:
– Given the strong development we’ve had, there will be more and more American shares. From time to time we see large concentrations like this, and then you can always think short-term about whether it is going to be messy now and whether the valuation is too high. But we’re very long-term, so I’m not too concerned about this long-term development, even if it might mess it up a bit in the short term.