The month was characterized by a sharp spike in geopolitical uncertainty, as escalation in the Middle East triggered initial risk aversion. Cyclical and economically sensitive sectors underperformed, while defense and energy-related stocks showed strength.
"Historically, dynamics tend to stabilize after the initial shock, but the forward outlook remains heavily dependent on the duration of the conflict. This necessitates flexible and active portfolio management," the management team noted.
Among the primary positive contributors were Icelandic Salmon, Nibe, and Sdiptech on the long side, alongside Sandvik, Wärtsilä, and Invisio on the short side. Conversely, Dometic, Atlas Copco, and Valmet weighed on the fund's performance from the long book.
During the month, the managers focused on dynamically managing the fund's net exposure. By shifting portions of the cyclical long book from equities to derivative instruments, primarily call options, the ability to actively manage the portfolio's gamma exposure has increased.
This facilitated tactical trading around market volatility, where exposure was continuously increased during periods of weakness and adjusted via index futures to maintain a stable risk profile.
Furthermore, the managers capitalized on the broad market downturn to selectively increase exposure to high-quality cyclical companies that had fallen disproportionately in the short term, including Atlas Copco, Boliden, Epiroc, and Hexagon.
The concluding assessment is that underlying fundamentals remain largely intact across these companies, while valuations have undergone significant downward adjustments, which is expected to create recovery potential moving forward.
At month-end, the fund's net exposure stood at 40 percent, corresponding to a beta-adjusted net exposure of 30 percent.
The fund's largest holdings at the end of the month were Valmet at 5.09 percent, followed by Icelandic Salmon and Vestum with portfolio weights of 4.41 and 4.20 percent, respectively.
| Norron Nordic Multi Strategy, % | March, 2026 |
| Fund MTD, percentage change | -1.91 |
| Fund YTD, percentage change | -3.97 |
