By Carolina Mandl
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bridgewater Associates added shares of big banks to its portfolio in the third quarter, securities filings showed, ahead of a rally that followed Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election.
The hedge fund founded by Ray Dalio ended September with bigger positions in Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York Mellon and Citigroup. It also built a new position in Bank of America.
Expectations that a Trump victory would bring looser regulations to the banking industry helped lift the sector in recent weeks. The KBW Bank Index is up roughly 17% since the end of September and has surged by nearly 12% since the Nov. 5 vote.
Still, it is not possible to say if Bridgewater held its position past Sept. 30, which is the cutoff date for the 13-F filings.
Though they do not reveal current holdings, the filings are one of the few ways to get a look at the portfolios of often-secretive market players such as hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds.
Bridgewater’s biggest position in dollar terms was Wells Fargo, a stake worth $79.6 million at the end of September.
Other hedge funds making bets on the banking sector included Dan Sundheim’s D1 Capital Partners, which had a new $174.9 million stake in Bank of America on Sept. 30, a filing showed.
(Reporting by Carolina Mandl, in New York; additional reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Ira Iosebashvili and Diane Craft)
