Baku: The return of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) from its equity index strategy reached $9.4 billion by the end of 2025, the Fund said in response to an inquiry from APA-Economics. According to Azeri-Press News Agency, this figure amounted to $6.3 billion in 2024. Thus, in 2025 alone, SOFAZ's equity portfolio returns increased by 49% to $3.1 billion. The total return since the inception of the Fund's equity portfolio has reached 330%. Overall, the current value of the Fund's equity portfolio increased from $13.4 billion in 2024 to $16.5 billion last year. The Fund noted that equity investments are mainly carried out based on the MSCI World Index. By the end of 2025, this index covered shares of 1,320 companies across 23 developed countries. The total market capitalization of these companies increased from $77 trillion to $91 trillion within one year. Of the companies in which the Fund invests, 72% are from the United States, 5.5% from Japan, 3.6% from the United Kingdom, and 3.4% from Canada. For other countries, this figure is less than 3%. Of these companies, 27% belong to the information technology sector, 17% to financials, 11% to industrials, 10% to consumer discretionary, and another 9-10% to the healthcare sector. Note that SOFAZ does not invest in exchange-traded funds (ETF) or mutual funds, but directly purchases shares of companies included in the index and implements a more conservative, diversification-oriented passive management strategy.