Saturday 06 August 2022 3:29 pm | Updated: Friday 19 August 2022 12:57 pm

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway books $43.8bn loss after slide on equity markets

City Editor

It has been two months since Bitcoin’s latest all-time high. After rising over 370% in 16 months, Bitcoin is taking a well-deserved breather. Before this period of consolidation, discussions suggested that this cycle might be “left-truncated” and could end much earlier than previous ones. The idea particularly gained traction as Bitcoin surpassed its previous all-time highs before the halving. Now, it seems the excitement of the previous run has faded with market sentiment also declining.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway was hit by the global rout on equity markets in the second quarter of the year as it booked a hefty $43.8bn loss.

Net loss at New York-listed Berkshire was equal to $29,754 per Class A share, and well down from a net profit of $28.1bn, or $18,488 per Class A share, in the period last year.

Buffet’s firm reined in stock purchases in the second quarter amid a slide on US markets, buying $6.1bn, down from $51.1bn in the first quarter when it took major stakes in oil companies Chevron Corp and Occidental Petroleum Corp.

Repurchases of its own stock also slowed as it bought back $1bn in the quarter, taking the total to $4.2bn so far this year.

Quarterly operating profit rose 39 per cent to $9.28bn however, up from $6.69bn, a year earlier.

Interest rate hikes lifted Berkshire’s insurance units as they generated more money from investments, while the strengthening U.S. dollar boosted profit from its European and Japanese debt investments.

Berkshire ended June with $105.4bn of cash and equivalents. The firm is expecting to complete its $11.6bn takeover of insurance company Alleghany Corp in the fourth quarter.