Gold gets a kicking - which trusts may feel the pain?

The price of gold has crashed in recent days by around 14% since Friday, with traders fretting about the biggest sell off in three decades.  Whilst the rumour mill has gone in to overdrive as to what’s happening behind the scenes and who is responsible for the trades that’s bringing the price down, a number of investment trusts have exposure to the shiny stuff.

The longterm drivers for gold we’re all told is the emerging demand from the middle classes in India & China, whilst short to medium term quantitive easing by Governments has persuaded cautious investors of the allure of the shiny stuff, along with the worry that devaluation is the most likely route indebted Governments will choose to whittle away their debts.

So who has been feeling the pain in the last few days in the investment trust world:

• Troy Asset management’s Sebastian Lyons who runs Personal Assets Trust (LON:PNL) investment trust is a famous gold bull, something he reiterated to me and others back in late January this year. Personal Assets has a reported holding in Gold of 12.4% in gold bullion as of 31/03/2013. In addition to that it has gold mining shares in Newcrest & Agnico-Eagle mines totalling 2.4% as of the same date.
• Ruffer Investment (LON:RICA) reported holding 10% of assets in a mix of gold and gold mining equities as at 31/03/13
• RIT Capital Partners (LON:RCP) reported holding 4.4% of NAV in gold derivatives (as part of its ‘real assets’ investment category) and a further 1.8% in the BlackRock Gold and General Fund as at 31/03/13.
• New Star Investment Trust (LON:NSI) held 9% of assets in the BlackRock Gold and General Fund at 31/12/12, plus a further 4.6% of assets in a Gold Bullion Securities ETF.
• Blackrock World Mining Trust (LON:BRWM) reported holding 8.5% of the portfolio in gold mining shares as at 28/02/13
• Blackrock Commodities Income Investment Trust (LON:BRCI) reported holding 6.2% of the portfolio in gold mining shares as at the same date.
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