(Bloomberg) -- The Swiss National Bank took a beating on its U.S. stock portfolio at the end of 2018, with its stakes in Amazon and Facebook tumbling about 20 percent amid a market slump.
The SNB, whose investments mirror indexes, owned stock in 2,536 U.S. companies worth a total of almost $78 billion, down 13 percent from the previous quarter, according to a regulatory filing. The value of its holding in movie streaming service Netflix plummeted 27 percent, according to the data.
A spokesman for the SNB declined to comment.
Global equity markets tumbled in the final quarter of 2018, with the S&P 500 index suffering its worst performance in seven years. That was driven by investor disquiet about the trade dispute, political rancor in the U.S. and Europe, and concerns the Federal Reserve's tightening policy would throttle economic growth.
The SNB's filing to the SEC is the only information available on how its stakes in individual companies are evolving. The SNB held 19 percent of its foreign exchange reserves in equities at the end of last year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Bosley in Zurich at cbosley1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Zoe Schneeweiss
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