Investment Trust , REIT and ETF's- Thoughts (July 2026)
Investment Trust , REIT and ETF's- Thoughts (July 2026)
Links to older monthly thoughts.
June 2026 May 2026 April 26 March 26 Feb 2026 January 2026 December 25 November 2025 October 25 September 2025
For more information on Investment trusts visit:
Association of Investment Companies.
https://www.theaic.co.uk/
Free to sign up. On the site you can create portfolios, screen and compare Investment Trusts by Geographic region, Sector , Yield and more. A few Trusts who are not AIC members have limited data.
Jonathan Davies's website https://money-makers.co/.
You can also sign up(Paid membership) for insights on Investment Trusts from him and others. Weekly email and podcast .
Citywire do a daily Investment trust email. Free, does have sponsored content but keeps you up to-date with Investment Trust news.
https://citywire.com/investment-trust-insider
Trustnet have an Investment trust section. https://www.trustnet.com/
Kepler Trust intelligence produce reports for Investment trusts
Edison cover Investment Companies and do a monthly Investment trust round up. You can sign up for free.
https://www.edisongroup.com/equities/investment-companies/.
You can sign up for newsletters/fact sheets from most of the Investment Trusts on their websites.
For ETF's I use https://www.justetf.com/uk/. You can screen buy region, sector and see performance comparisons.
June 2026 Investment Trust monthly performance.
Top 10 (Equity)
Biotech Growth Trust (LON:BIOG) +20.6%
RTW Biotech Opportunities (LON:RTW) +11.7%
India Capital Growth Fund (LON:IGC) +10.9%
International Biotechnology Trust (LON:IBT) +10.8%
Worldwide Healthcare Trust (LON:WWH) +9.6%
Brown Advisory Us Smaller Companies (LON:BASC) +9.1%
Polar Capital Global Healthcare Trust (LON:PCGH) +8.4%
North American Income Trust (LON:NAIT) +7.9%
Worsley Investors (LON:WINV) +6.3%
JPMorgan India Growth & Income (LON:JIGI) +6.1%
Bottom 10 (Equity)
Seraphim Space Investment Trust (LON:SSIT) -24.9%
British and American Investment Trust (LON:BAF) -20%
Schiehallion Fund (LON:MNTN) -12%
Fidelity China Special Situations (LON:FCSS) -11.4%
Montanaro European Smaller Companies Trust (LON:MTE) -6.1%
Global Opportunities Trust (LON:GOT) -6%
Fidelity Asian Values (LON:FAS) -5.7%
Blackrock Latin American Investment Trust (LON:BRLA) -5.7%
Crystal Amber Fund (LON:CRS) -5.3%
Top 10 (All trusts)
Biotech Growth Trust (LON:BIOG) +20.6%
Bluefield Solar Income Fund (LON:BSIF) +16.5%
RTW Biotech Opportunities (LON:RTW) +11.7%
India Capital Growth Fund (LON:IGC) +10.9%
Aquila European Renewables (LON:AERS) +10.8%
International Biotechnology Trust (LON:IBT) +10.8%
Worldwide Healthcare Trust (LON:WWH) +9.6%
Brown Advisory Us Smaller Companies (LON:BASC) +9.1%
Polar Capital Global Healthcare Trust (LON:PCGH) +8.4%
JPMorgan Global Core Real Assets (LON:JARA) +8.3%
Bottom 10 (All Trusts)
Seraphim Space Investment Trust (LON:SSIT) -24.9%
SDCL Efficiency Income Trust (LON:SEIT) -20.8%
British and American Investment Trust (LON:BAF) -20%
Golden Prospect Precious Metals (LON:GPM) -15.1%
Ecofin US Renewables Infrastructure Trust (LON:RNEW) -12.6%
Schiehallion Fund (LON:MNTN) -12%
Blackrock Energy and Resources Income Trust (LON:BERI)
Fidelity China Special Situations (LON:FCSS) -11.4%
BlackRock World Mining Trust (LON:BRWM) -9.8%
Pershing Square Holdings (LON:PSH) -9.5%
Disclaimer
This is not financial advice. Our content is intended to be used and must be used for information and education purposes only. Please read our disclaimer and terms and conditions to understand our obligations.
244 comments
Picton Property Income (LON:PCTN) has agreed terms with Londonmetric Property (LON:LMP) and Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust (LON:SREI) https://mybrand.schroders.com/...
I was thinking of buying some more Phoenix Spree Deutschland (LON:PSDL) as it looks fundamentally cheap re its NAV. However AJ Bell have restricted dealing in it as the Key information is not available. So am now not proceeding. and will just hold onto what I have as capital slowly gets returned to shareholders. I have bought some more WisdomTree Physical AI Humanoids and Drones UCITS - USD Acc ETF (LON:PAIG) . The price has fallen since I bought a small holding, but though I am not a chartist it does look like it has bottomed out. Interesting article in South China Morning post about start ups in this sector https://sc.mp/jdc15?utm_source....
AI summary of PAIG's portfolio "PAIG cannot buy shares in unlisted start-ups directly, it invests across the entire supply chain and public market players that build, power, or deploy humanoid and robotic technology:
Huge gain for the Korean Kospi index today. It’s up 18% Samsung rose 30%.! Not sure such volatility bodes well though.
No surprise obviously to see big gains in Asian Trusts including the high yielders like Aberdeen Asian Income Fund (LON:AAIF) . Henderson Far East Income (LON:HFEL) went ex the 6.3p quarterly dividend yesterday and is up 7p today and has already recovered the dividend being taken out of the share price. I hold both.
I'd welcome some of that volatility in Vietnam!
Franklin Global Quality Dividend UCITS ETF (LON:FLXX) is you want a roller coaster exposure to Korea. Unlikely Vietnam will have this sort of move- there is not the P.I interest in the market that South Korea has- and all sorts of leveraged plays going on. I held FLXX in Jan this year- sold within weeks for a decent gain, could have been a lot more but as I say from time to time I do buy some stocks with a fixed idea of the return i am looking for.
JSchoffer.
I understand your frustration at the continuing flat at best performance of the 3 Vietnam Investment Trusts VietNam Holding (LON:VNH) VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) and Vietnam Enterprise Investments (LON:VEIL) . I feel the same.
But this is similar to when shares like M&G (LON:MNG) , Legal & General (LON:LGEN) Aviva (LON:AV.) Standard Life (LON:SDLF) did nothing at best or fell even further for ages, despite those Companies (like the Vietnam Trusts now) issuing upbeat Results and news and increases in the already double digit yielding dividends. And I know of people who posted to say that they had finally lost patience right at the bottom and sold. It was we patient investors who ended up rewarded big time.
Unfortunately with those shares there was 10%+ dividend reward while being patient while for the Vietnam Trusts 2 don’t pay dividends and the VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) dividend is under 3%.
Here is the latest Monthly update issued by VietNam Holding (LON:VNH) a few days ago. It’s upbeat from the very first paragraph. e.g 7.5% growth etc etc.etc. Wow! There are facts and figures there that show how it might be very unwise to give up the ghost on Vietnam now.
VietNam Holding Limited ("VNH" or the "Company")
Monthly Investor Report
A report detailing the activities of the Company for the month of June 2026 has been issued by Dynam Capital Limited, the investment manager of the Company. Electronic copies of the report have been made available to shareholders on the Company's website and a summary of the report is included below.
Manager Commentary: Price and prejudice
June presented investors with something of a conundrum - a widening gap between price and perception. On the one hand, the evidence supporting Vietnam's long-term investment case continues to build. Economic growth remains among the strongest in Asia, exports continue to expand, consumers are spending, foreign manufacturers are investing at record levels and company earnings are expected to deliver another quarter of robust double-digit growth. On the other hand, many of Vietnam's highest-quality listed companies continue to trade on valuations more commonly associated with periods of economic uncertainty than strong economic growth.
International institutions have increasingly recognised the country's progress. From July 1st, the World Bank reclassified Vietnam as an "Upper Middle Income" economy, reflecting the country's remarkable economic transformation over the past two decades. More recently, the IMF revised its 2026 growth forecast for Vietnam upwards to 7.5%, citing stronger-than-expected technology exports and resilient domestic demand, even as it became more cautious on parts of the global economy. Standard Chartered Bank forecast a much higher 9.5% growth for the year. Together with Vietnam's forthcoming promotion to FTSE Russell Secondary Emerging Market status in September, these developments point to growing international recognition of Vietnam's economic transformation, even if public equity markets have yet to fully reflect it.
The latest economic data only adds to that picture. GDP growth accelerated to 8.2% in the second quarter, exports rose 21.0% in the first half of the year and retail sales increased by almost 14.8% in June. Registered foreign direct investment reached a record US$34.7 bn, while manufacturing activity remained firmly in expansion territory. The trade figures also deserve a little more attention than the headlines might suggest. Imports continue to outpace exports, resulting in a wider trade deficit, but much of that increase reflects machinery, electronic components and production inputs being brought into the country by foreign manufacturers. Those are the building blocks of future production. Vietnam's growing exports of computers, electronics and mobile phones increasingly reflect investments that were made months, and often years, earlier.
There is another interesting contrast. While foreign direct investment continues to break records, foreign portfolio investors have remained net sellers of Vietnamese equities. Companies investing in new manufacturing capacity and expanding supply chains are making long-term commitments to Vietnam's future, while many equity investors continue to focus on shorter-term concerns around geopolitics, global capital flows and market sentiment. That divergence goes a long way towards explaining why valuations remain so subdued despite such strong economic fundamentals.
There are also signs that the backdrop may be becoming more supportive. Inflation eased during June as lower oil prices fed through into consumer prices, helping improve the outlook for interest rates. At the same time, second-quarter earnings are expected to show growth of around 18-20%, suggesting that the underlying performance of many businesses remains firmly intact.
All of which brings us back to the conundrum. The VNH portfolio now trades on around 10 times forward earnings, with our ten largest holdings closer to 8.5 times, despite expected earnings growth of around 20%. It is not often that businesses delivering this level of earnings growth are valued at levels associated with far weaker economic conditions. Overall, June itself was relatively quiet, with the Fund's NAV declining by 0.3% as markets largely moved sideways ahead of the reporting season. Our investment approach, however, remains consistent. We continue to favour companies with strong balance sheets, clear earnings visibility and structural growth opportunities, while maintaining our gradual shift towards larger, more liquid businesses as Vietnam's capital markets continue to mature.
The conundrum, therefore, is not whether Vietnam's economy continues to move forward. The evidence increasingly speaks for itself. Rather, it is why so much of that progress has yet to be reflected in market valuations.
Experience tells us that economies and markets do not always move in step. For long-term investors, those moments when perception and fundamentals diverge can often provide the most compelling opportunities.
For more information please contact:
Dynam Capital Limited
Craig Martin Tel: +84 28 3827 7590
@dynamcapital.com">infoVietNam Holding (LON:VNH).com |www.dynamcapital.com
www.vietnamholding.com
Cavendish Capital Markets Limited
Corporate Broker and Financial Advisor Tel: +44 20 7220 0500
Thanks Ken, it was a flippant comment if im honest! Happy to wait for Vietnam Enterprise Investments (LON:VEIL) to slowly catch up with the economy - not sure I could stomach the Kopsi drops. Will have a look at VietNam Holding (LON:VNH) to see whether worthwhile splitting across the two.
Not sure I will be investing any time soon as I am happy with Seraphim Space Investment Trust (LON:SSIC) , But is interesting that ETF's re space launching most months https://www.etfstream.com/arti...
Saba have just announced they have 13.2% of Molten Ventures (LON:GROW) through their usual method of financial instruments. They physically own 0.25%.
I have no idea what they are planning to do and cannot really see what the game plan could be. But they obviously see some value and i assume believe that they can narrow the discount. One of my larger holdings is GROW.
I rather took my eye of my Emerging market portfolio which meant I had become very exposed to Samsung and TSMC. So have sold a few funds and bought some more iShares Core MSCI EM IMI UCITS ETF USD Acc (LON:EMIM) . The funds had all done well- but had I bothered to look a few weeks ago would have been up a fair bit more. Proves the point that even just holding funds you do need to keep an eye on underlying holdings. The sales were Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Markets Trust (LON:AWEM) , Fidelity Emerging Markets (LON:FEML) ,JPMorgan Emerging Markets Dividend Income (LON:JEMI) and Artemis smartGarp EM. Net result is % exposure is now 13.4% of all our portfolios- down from 18.5%. I now hold iShares Core MSCI EM IMI UCITS ETF USD Acc (LON:EMIM) ,Mobius Investment Trust (LON:MMIT) iShares MSCI EM Small Cap UCITS ETF USD (Dist) (LON:IEMS) Blackrock Frontiers Investment Trust (LON:BRFI) Aberdeen Asian Income Fund (LON:AAIF) and AVI Global Trust (LON:AGT)
Agreed Charles I generally go for six monthly rebalancing end of May and start of Nov but caveat that with the fact I will also top slice if we get very aggressive choppy periods in the market which can work very well for quick 8-10% gains in short order.
I listened to this excellent podcast recently : Building Capita & Repurposing Private Equity to Help Every Child Read - would highly recommend it.
It got me interested in learning more about Literacy Capital (LON:BOOK, which is trading at a massive -36.73% discount to NAV
Unlike other larger private equity funds, Literacy Capital targets small, founder-led, or family-owned UK businesses. It steps in when founders want to retire or scale, bringing in operational management. The trust does not charge performance fees and the top 10 investments make up roughly 80% of net assets.
Does anyone hold? It has had a dismal period but perhaps now is the time to be looking to buy some?
I hold BOOK- bought for the same reason your looking at-poor recent performance. and huge discount to NAV. Not done that well as a holding so far but I am reasonably convinced it will come good.
bsharman- after you mentioned I re-looked at BOOK and have now bought more, averaging down. The portfolio looks OK, I suspect that Oxygen Active play may have continued to suffer due to the weather but they Trust has de-geared and it would seem several of the holdings are doing well. The B share idea is sound in my view so lets hope we see some realisations.
The 4-Step B-Share Mechanism
Why B-Shares Beat Standard Buybacks
Hi Ken (and Timarr),
Thanks for your many posts they have helped my investing returns enormously.
I hold Primary Health Properties (LON:PHP) and agree with your comments , I'm surprised there isn't more of a reaction on the positive update today - everything seems to be heading in the right direction.
With regard to renewables including Greencoat UK Wind (LON:UKW) I have avoided on the basis I find them extremely difficult to value and have followed the adage of don't invest in things you don't understand. The main issue I have is that are far as I know there is no provision replacement of assets once they reach end of life. Wind Turbines end of life on-shore 20 - 25 years , off-shore 25 - 30 years. Many of UKWs assets are already halfway through their useful life. In this scenario NAV seems fairly meaningless to me other than you know its going to zero at some point. Excuse the pun but it looks like they are in a managed wind down. In the short-term I guess this doesn't matter.
I'd be interested if you could give me any pointers as to how you rationalise this - accepting that I may be completely wrong.
Thanks
Those are valid concerns along with others like big debt repayments ahead, but arguably these are not shorter term. I can’t see why UKW will eventually end up worthless as old turbines can be replaced by modern more efficient ones, albeit the costs involved being significant.
I don’t see Greencoat UK Wind (LON:UKW) as a long term hold, but bought after what seemed to be a very encouraging update along with another dividend increase that could see a further useful short term rise in the share price. The share price is up again today.
The lack of transparency and complex nature of Trusts like Greencoat UK Wind (LON:UKW) was a key reason I sold most of mine a while ago.
There are so many more straightforward Trusts available. I much prefer Trusts I understand.
I still can’t fathom why markets are doing so well while the war continues to rage and effects of it on world economies so significant.But some Investment Trust sectors that do little on big up and down days, might well ride out any big falls comparatively well. And two examples are Commercial Property and Renewables. Today there are Results from both these 2 sectors.
Good Results from both Greencoat UK Wind (LON:UKW) and Primary Health Properties (LON:PHP) . I had sold UKW but have bought it back at 107p today despite my doubts about the sector generally.
Best to read the Greencoat UK Wind (LON:UKW) Results, but note the strong net cash generation,
Debt at £2,070 is still far too high but encouraging to see it’s down by £56 million.
Dividend increased for 13th year in a row so yield is around 10% and a key reason why I’ve brought today. Dividend is 1.9x covered. Ex div on 13th August and pay day 28th August.
With Primary Health Properties (LON:PHP) again the obvious thing to do is to read their Results. Main negative is too high 57% LTV .
I already hold PHP.
Thoughts on either of these two anyone?
Here are the initial PHP highlights:-
FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Income statement metrics
Six months to
30 June
2026
Six months to
30 June
2025
Change
Net rental income1
£176m
£79m
+123%
Rental growth1
+3.2%
+3.0%
EPRA cost ratio1
8.7%
9.8%
-110bps
Adjusted earnings1,2
£98m
£47m
+109%
Adjusted earnings per share1,2
3.8p
3.5p
+9%
IFRS profit after tax for the period
£99m
£59m
+68%
IFRS earnings per share2
3.8p
4.4p
-14%
Dividends
Dividend per share4
3.65p
3.55p
+3%
Dividend cover1
103%
100%
+3ppts
Balance sheet and operational metrics
30 June
2026
31 December
2025
Property portfolio
Investment portfolio valuation (including JVs at share)
£6.0bn
£6.0bn
Contracted rent roll (annualised)1
£345m
£342m
Government-backed income1
76%
76%
Weighted average unexpired lease term ("WAULT")1
10.4 years
10.8 years
Occupancy1
99%
99%
Net initial yield ("NIY")1
5.4%
5.4%
Balance sheet
Adjusted NTA per share1,3
104p
104p
IFRS NTA per share1,3
99p
98p
Debt
Average cost of debt1
3.8%
3.7%
Loan to value ratio1
57%
57%
Weighted average debt maturity - drawn facilities
4.0 years
4.1 years
Total undrawn loan facilities and cash5
£301m
£571m
Hi ken
I hold both Primary Health Properties (LON:PHP) and Greencoat UK Wind (LON:UKW).
PHP debt is high, but this is heavily public sector backed so it's one step removed from a government bond. Not worried about the debt.
UKW is probably the best of the renewables funds - highly diversified, not heavily exposed to subsidies and, as you say, the dividend is well covered and cash generation is good. I've dabbled a lot with renewable funds but in the end I've settled on UKW. They are, obviously, somewhat exposed to the elements but they seem good at controlling what they can.
Both of these sit in the core group of IT's I hold: I don't see them shooting out any lights, but they're solid performers who aren't likely to cause many sleepless nights.
timarr
HgCapital Trust (LON:HGT) Successful exit shows all not gloom in the Saas sector "
Hg, the Manager of HgCapital Trust plc ("HgT"), today announces a full exit of Quantios, a leading provider of SaaS solutions to the global trust and corporate services industry.
This transaction values HgT's investment in Quantios at approximately £13 million. This would represent an uplift of £3 million (31% or 0.7pence per share) over the carrying value of £10 million in the Net Asset Value ("NAV") of HgT at 31 March 2026.
Note that these figures only relate to HgT's share of Hg's overall investment in Quantios.
Based on the 31 March 2026 NAV, the pro-forma NAV of HgT is expected to be £2.4 billion (or 529.7 pence per share).
An excellent article by the regular poster SSB covering some superb Inv Trusts (and shares) that presented at June's Mello event - as well as a couple at last Novembers.
I concur with the vast majority of what SSB says - and it has reminded me of the great value of the two days. In fact, I have just booked my ticket & accom for this November - whilst it is not cheap coming down from Scotland the costs are easily recouped with just a single good idea.
Hope to see some of you there.
https://www.stockopedia.com/...
The directors may elect to calculate the redemption price by reference to the amount generated upon the realisation of a redemption pool created for the purpose of funding the redemption.
The VietNam Holding (LON:VNH) optional redemption message just dropped into my HL account... It says that the directors will either use NAV or the method above, which I couldn't wrap my head round:)
Not until end of August, but I wondered if anyone understood the alternative to NAV please
Hope this Gemini AI response clearsit up "
This comment describes a mechanism that VietNam Holding Limited (VNH)—a closed-end investment fund—uses to determine how much cash shareholders receive when they use the fund’s annual Redemption Facility.
What It Means in Plain English
Instead of paying exiting shareholders based on a theoretical "paper" Net Asset Value (NAV) calculated on a single date, the fund’s Board of Directors has the option to set aside a specific portion of the fund’s investments into a separate "pool".
The manager then sells off the assets in that pool in the open market, and the final price exiting shareholders receive depends directly on the net cash generated from those actual sales.
Key Terms Broken Down
Why Do Investment Funds Use This Mechanism?
In frontier or emerging markets like Vietnam, liquidating large blocks of shares quickly can impact market prices (market friction/slippage). Creating a redemption pool solves three main challenges:
Many thanks indeed Charles... I couldn't seem to find any anecdotal data ... does anyone have experience of how close to NAV this has been please?
I can't recall it being used . I think last time there was enough liquidity to pay out at NAV from cash resources. I think it is just a buffer in case a huge number of shares were tendered. last time it was about 17%.
Much appreciated Charles and as ever, very many thanks indeed from all of us for all your time, help and expertise....
This is just the sort of messages that I have not well understood and has therefore put me off investing in ITs. Your response above is the kind of explanations I have been seeking as I've started moving towards them. Thank you for such a clear explanation and all that you do on this thread.
Thank you Norfolk. IT's are pretty straightforward until this sort of random Article a Trust sets up. Discount pressure is the issue- though given the number of bids for UK trading companies I would say the same applies to those trading companies. The UK market valuation is just wrong- and it is the institutions who are at fault.
Strong trading update from Newriver Reit (LON:NRR) today. Share price hasn’t responded, but NRR is already up 7% over 1 month and 21% YTD. Hope a few here also bought near the lows.
Dividend yield is still 8.3% even after the share price gain. LTV is high at 43% but below their 50% max target and with disposal plane to reduce it to 40% again.
The Moor acquisition looks a good one. Look at the quality retailers there! Newriver Reit (LON:NRR) is still well worth checking out as a buy opportunity, although it was a better buy opportunity when covered on the Investment Trust bb ahead of those gains.
Acquisition of The Moor, Sheffield, concluding successful Capital Partnership with BRAVO
●
NewRiver acquired BRAVO's 90% interest in The Moor, Sheffield for £38.3m taking ownership to 100%. The acquisition price reflects a significant discount to the March 26 valuation and a 10% net initial yield providing an attractive entry point into an asset that NewRiver has managed since 2021 and knows well
●
The Moor is a 20-acre city centre estate with a diversified income profile, affordable rents and a strong occupier base, anchored by The Light, Primark, Sainsbury's, Next and Sports Direct. Recent lettings to HSBC, Oseyo, Five Guys and Popeyes provide further evidence of occupational demand
●
NewRiver has a clear plan to drive further income and capital growth, centred on re-anchoring the former Debenhams unit, which was recently acquired off a low capital value and is expected to deliver significant income and capital growth, with advanced discussions with potential tenants ongoing
●
The transaction also concludes NewRiver's successful capital partnership with BRAVO, established in 2019, which has delivered an IRR to NewRiver of +21%
●
Including The Moor acquisition, proforma LTV is 43% compared with 40% at 31 March 2026 and remains comfortably within the Company's 50% policy. NewRiver retains an active FY27 disposal pipeline to support a return towards 40%.
Following up my post just now; other REITs doing well this year include Target Healthcare Reit (LON:THRL) up 7% 1 month and 19% ytd.
Land Securities (LON:LAND) up 8% 1 month and 14% YTD. And up over 30% from the late March low.
Tritax Big Box REIT (LON:BBOX) up 7% 1 month and 15% YTD.
But look at Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust (LON:SREI) where the share price has been hammered thanks to their joining in with the Londonmetric Property (LON:LMP) bid for Picton.
SREI is flat at current rock bottom 46p price over 1 month but DOWN 16% YTD. 29% discount to NAV and 7.8% dividend strongly hint that Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust (LON:SREI) is a real bargain buy opportunity.
I hold all these REITS (and others not in this post) except Tritax Big Box REIT (LON:BBOX) (missed recent great buy opportunity) and Target Healthcare Reit (LON:THRL) .
Away from REITS note the current Korean market crash with their Kospi index down 11% today and down 28% over the last month. Both Henderson Far East Income (LON:HFEL) and Aberdeen Asian Income Fund (LON:AAIF) (I hold both) have over 20% in Korea. Hope they reduced after the recent huge gains!
Henderson Far East Income (LON:HFEL) at 255p is down from recent 280p.That brings the yield back to almost 10%. And HFEL goes ex the next big quarterly dividend this Thursday. Pay day is August 28th.
Have just had a call with my IFA and he reiterates your concerns over the dependence of Emerging Markets Funds on Chip makers in Taiwan, Korea, etc Ken. Their move is to increase weighting on Global Small Caps. Also significantly underweight US.
Tritax Big Box REIT (LON:BBOX) has only now recovered to where it was earlier this year. Hopefully with the better news on Data Centre developments and the bid activity for SEGRO (LON:SGRO) it has further to run from here.
With you on Newriver Reit (LON:NRR) and Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust (LON:SREI) .
And hope Richard Spencer can help top up funds at Goodwood this week! (Though the size of my wagers won't make much difference)
Fidelity Emerging Markets (LON:FEML) has some 13% in South Korea and is down 11% in the past month.
I have it as a long-term hold though so happy to take this temp shake-out of a very concentrated market. It is down 3% today.
I hold FEML and others exposed to Korea. It is volatile having held a Korea ETF in January this year saw it live !. But my confidence in the region remains there for the medium term. That along with property in the UK. BBOX and NRR are my largest two individual holdings Anyone hold Sanderson Design (LON:SDG) - I bought it on a dip but have held since the recovery.
Interesting Charles. Both Sanderson Design (LON:SDG) and Colefax (LON:CFX) have been high on my screener for a while - both in the same sector. I plumped for cfx because of the increase in forecast earnings. Only a small starter position - the low liquidity really means that this is outside my usual comfort zone.
I see value in the SDG portfolio. Could be worth £1.00 plus to a US bidder as fas as I can see. I would like to see div increase though.
Appears that 23% of the fund is invested in MSCI Emerging Markets Index Future (which has 40% in Information technology stocks), around 12% Taiwan Semiconductors and around 4% Samsung Electronics.
Ken, agree re NRR. I bought a while back and so up 17%. I have bought more today. I am reducing the number of holdings across all the portfolios so that I end up with a more concentrated portfolio of Trusts and companies I am fairly confident in. My days of speculative punts are over pretty much unless a price fall like Grainger (LON:GRI) or Pets at Home (LON:PETS) looks over done. The latter I am thinking of selling as bounced over 18% since I bought a couple of months ago. Important discipline when buying a trading company for a bounce is not to then think it is a good long term hold- I still have doubts about the regulatory framework in the increasingly concentrated Vet industry.
Sold PETS AND bought more NRR. PETS could go up another 10p or so, but happy to take a short term gain.
Is Grainger (LON:GRI) worth a look Ken? SP 180p having bounced off recent low 150p. Has been on my 'Wait for the Turn' watchlist as it trended down long term from 275p. Disc to NAV 38% with NAV still trending down YoY but only by 3% at HY. LTV 40%. Occupancy 96%, in the growing Build to Rent sector and expect 35% growth in EPS over the next 3 years.
I'd expect to see a return to gentle capital growth here as housing market will surely trend up long term. And prices tend to overshoot on both way up and down. Not dynamic but maybe at a turning point?
Grainger (LON:GRI) might well be worth buying sevenccc, but with a too low yield it’s not a REIT I’ve looked at closely. timarr mentioned Grainger (LON:GRI) in a recent post as one to consider. Hope you get a more helpful reply.
From a technical Point of View Grainger (LON:GRI) is stuck at the current level for most of July which is a Support/Resistance level going back into September last year. It also happens to be the current 200 day SMA. I would wait for now and see which way it goes with price action from here before getting in. Im not Ken obviously....
I bought Grainger (LON:GRI) In July and is has bounced 7%. I am holding for the moment but it was a purchase expecting a short term bounce whenI bought it. Still on a big discout and Saba have a stake.
Craig Martin of VietNam Holding (LON:VNH) latest views https://dynamcapital.substack....
Ignore. Error.
This is the list my quality garp screen throws up currently I only hold Polar Capital Holdings (LON:POLR) and Foresight group (LON:FSG) as I don't trust myself with two many single stocks.
Interesting to see Jupiter Fund Management (LON:JUP) has just come back into it, I did hold this previously but lost patience before it went on to double.
As mentioned I keep looking at James Halstead (LON:JHD) but ideally would want to buy near the very 52 week low and try and have the discipling to get out if it dropped 5-10% below that. It gave results last week so hopefully no curve balls from it next 3-6 months but the long term chart isn't encouraging even though it ticks a lot of boxes investors want owner managed etc.
Hi TP
Of those I hold about half. I added James Halstead (LON:JHD) a few weeks ago.
It's decidedly ex-growth and very unloved but has a rock solid balance sheet and is using it to take market share. On balance I like the odds, especially at this price.
Its problem has been that its main commercial markets are stagnant - that's a combination of slow replacement cycles for government procurement and high interest rates. The areas where their product is in high demand are geographically distant and shipping is prohibitively expensive, so geographical expansion is difficult.
Of the negative factors weighing on the growth the only one that looks like a longer term issue is the move to e-commerce, reducing the bricks and mortar needs of its major customers. The rest of it will turn - eventually.
Their conservative balance sheet gives them a lot of options. Currently they're using it to undercut competitors, driving them out of business. Eventually they benefit from that. They could, if they wished, buy growth but I suspect that's unlikely other than at fire sale prices.
If it goes lower from here I'll probably look to buy more, barring some major calamity. Low growth in a quality business for explicable reasons is fine by me, I'm happy to wait a decade or so and take the inevitable dividends.
Reminds me a bit of James Latham (LON:LTHM) which I bought back in 2004 at about 130p. That took about ten years to get moving, but has done all right since. Family owned firms tend to invest for the next generation, and not worry too much about the next few weeks or months.
Lots of good companies on that list though, most of them cyclically cheap, although the palm oil producers have already had a good run - agricultural commodities are never going to go up in a straight line. And I don't like the MHA (LON:MHA) partner model, I prefer companies that don't have that conflict of interests.
Always something interesting to look at though!
timarr
Sold DNLM recently at a loss. I liked the business model but was beginning to have concerns. Our local store has a busy queue of returns and as another poster said a few months ago seems less busy. AEP has no sustainable policy re palm oil so avoided that. I did hold MP evans and am thinking of buying back. James Halstead does look interesting.
Polar Capital a bit too reliant on its tech funds for my liking - these went vertical for much of the year and this drove most of their AUM growth. However, performance has started to roll over recently and given still very high valuations I fear could fall a lot further. Anyway I personally took profits on Polar after a very good run.
It has had a hell of a run up Bouden for sure, they do have funds also in health care and insurance but granted tech is their main driver. I wouldn't be adding at this level but took a reasonable amount of my stake out near the recent high.
For anyone interested in Smiths News (LON:SNWS) (I hold)here is a claude AI summary https://docs.google.com/docume...
Investor Meet Company this coming week.
Migo Opportunities Trust (LON:MIGO) MIGO OPPORTUNITIES TRUST PLC
Annual Results
27th Jul 2026 at 10:00am BST
GCP Infrastructure Investments (LON:GCP) MIGO OPPORTUNITIES TRUST PLC
Annual Results
27th Jul 2026 at 10:00am BST
Greencoat UK Wind (LON:UKW) GREENCOAT UK WIND PLC
H1 Results
31st Jul 2026 at 11:00am BST
Here’s another post with focus on both dividend yields and that high yielders sometimes add big capital gains on top too. All the shares and Trusts in this post I hold. The gains shown are from my buy prices and reflect the tactic of buying as low as I can. It works. I check the chart for good entry points.
First to the holdings where the buy opportunity has probably gone for now, but if there’s a nasty bear market these might well be worth a look again.
The following have gone up so much that the dividend yield is now under 6% which is my minimum level for any new buy. Gains exclude dividends on top.
Polar Capital Holdings (LON:POLR) . Up 81%
Aberdeen (LON:ABDN) Up 54%
CQS Natural Resources Growth and Income (LON:CYN) Up 362% . Now at a premium to NAV too.
TP Icap (LON:TCAP) Up 242%
Serica Energy (LON:SQZ) Up 55%
These have still got yields above 6% but they’ve dropped from the double digit buy opportunities that lasted for so long. A case of patience being rewarded eventually with double digit yield while I was waiting:-
Ithaca Energy (LON:ITH) Up 75% and an average down Up 144%. Dividend yield is still 9.2% at current price.
M&G (LON:MNG) scrapes in with dividend now 6%. Share Up 100%.
Standard Life (LON:SDLF) Up 62% . Dividend now 6.4%
Blackrock Energy and Resources Income Trust (LON:BERI) Up 270%. Dividend now 6.2%.
Now to the holdings where the share price gains are modest or small and so still look well worth checking out:-
Ashmore (LON:ASHM) 205p. Up 9%. Dividend 8.3%
Henderson Far East Income (LON:HFEL) 261p Break even. I bought at the current price years ago. Until recent Manager change and change of tactics, performance was terrible with only the 9.5% dividend to compensate,
Living Reit (LON:LIVE) 78p Recent buy Up 9%. Dividend 7.6%
Sabre Insurance (LON:SBRE) 183p. Up 37%. Dividend 7.9%
Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust (LON:SREI) Up 19% Dividend 6.3%. Share price being held back while the joint bid for Picton with Londonmetric Property (LON:LMP) plays out. Looks a bargain and share price might well recover when Picton is over. Also chance of a bid including possibly from Londonmetric Property (LON:LMP)
Twentyfour Select Monthly Income Fund (LON:SMIF) Up16% Dividend 8.5%. There’s little upside for this type of Trust. So to get a capital gain on top I try to buy on a rare share price dip. Hence the 16% gain.
Land Securities (LON:LAND) 665p Up 15% . Dividend 6.2%. I woukd also jump at the chance to buy British Land (LON:BLND) if the yield gets to 6%.
Legal & General (LON:LGEN) 298p Up 92%, That gain suggests it’s far too late to buy, but my gain reflects a very lucky buy at just 155p, Dividend 7.6%
Foresight group (LON:FSG) Up 2%. Dividend 6.9%. A very recent buy prompted by posts here.
Smiths News (LON:SNWS)68p Up 38%. Dividend 7.8%. Recent big transformational deals add to the buy case, though short term the costs involved might mean no dividend increase and no more specials, But after that….wow. Could be a great lockaway at current price.
Cavendish (LON:CAV) 9p, yield 8.3%. Break even. Have just bought it again. Share looks so cheap that it might get bid for. Until a bid though or a better than expected update, the share might remain stuck around current price.
Chelverton UK Dividend Trust (LON:SDV) 139p. Up 2%. Dividend 7%, Doing nothing for now,
Custodian Property Income Reit (LON:CREI) 77p Up 15% . Dividend 6.8%.
TwentyFour Income Fund (LON:TFIF) 110p. Break Even. Like Twentyfour Select Monthly Income Fund (LON:SMIF) it’s unlikely to go up much and I regret missing a recent rare buy opportunity lower.
CQS New City High Yield Fund (LON:NCYF) 47p. Up 11% Dividend 8.6%. . Same again. Unlikely to go up much but these non share Trusts might well hold up well too.
Unite (LON:UTG) Up 18% Dividend 6%
Persimmon (LON:PSN) 1102p. DOWN 4% Dividend 6%. . Last update was positive and saw big share price gain on the day, since lost again and more! Chance of further short term falls to give an even better buy opportunity. Is Persimmon (LON:PSN) the best housebuilders choice?
Newriver Reit (LON:NRR) 82p Up 10%.Dividend 8.4%. Their Results are next week.
Chesnara (LON:CSN) 339p. Up 36%. Dividend 7.1%. I was going to put CSN in the too late to buy group, but maybe a bid candidate.
That’s it. Hope a few found this post useful. As always comment including criticism and suggestions are very welcome.
Totally agree re SNWS- one of our larger holdings now.
Lots there that I hold also Ken, my best performer on that list is Polar Capital Holdings (LON:POLR) currently up 76% for me although I did manage to take about 15% of my total holding off near the recent high.
I view it as my technology allocation slice in my Sipp, it pays a better dividend than Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (LON:SMT) and is also small enough to maybe get taken over at some point for an added kicker.
Lower down when I started buying the dividend was near 8% so I would imagine I've had 20-25% of my stake also back out in dividends over the last three years, if only they all worked out so well.
Pleased to read about your success with Polar Capital Holdings (LON:POLR) . Re your “if only they all worked out so well” comment, it’s too late now, but had you bought and been patient with the shares like Phoenix, now Standard Life, and the others in my post when I covered them as screaming bargains on Mike Walters site, they would all have done very well too. Guess next time after your Polar Capital Holdings (LON:POLR) success you will take full advantage of such opportunities.
I'm 80% in trusts and etf's these days Ken the majority of which have served me well, I was early into gold before it rocketed last 18 months and ditto BlackRock World Mining Trust (LON:BRWM. I like to have exposure to oil also and have held Shell (LON:SHEL) as my long term oil play.
Thanks for posting, Ken. An interesting read. I'm glad to see some overlap on our individual share holdings, Aberdeen (LON:ABDN), Cavendish (LON:CAV), Serica Energy (LON:SQZ), TP Icap (LON:TCAP). Im less invested in IT's, though thanks to this board, that is changing, sometimes for better Seraphim Space Investment Trust (LON:SSIT) and sometimes for worse SDCL Efficiency Income Trust (LON:SEIT) ... another I held, Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) since sold, but a healthy 75% gain over a year. As I recall, it was yourself that pointed it out here, so thanks for that too. We might not always write and post, but we're generally listening and paying attention!
Hi ken
I hold a lot of those. I think it's worth reflecting on some of the gains that have been made on what were patently cheap - but very unloved shares:
timarr
Thanks for that great reply timarr. .As with the gains in my post, as you say, it’s not showing off. It’s showing simple methods that work very well. And the big yields when we bought provide substantial income on top.
Normally a yield above 6% is often a big warning sign. So it was incredible that shares like Aviva (LON:AV.) M&G (LON:MNG) Standard Life (LON:SDLF) Legal & General (LON:LGEN) and others, were yielding over 10% when promising annual dividend increases. It doesn’t need any brain power to see they were at crazy too cheap prices.
I strongly agree about REITS being at bargain prices now and hold others including several of yours, that I didn’t include in my post. REITs could well hold up better than most in a severe bear market.
As for the risk of big market falls, I still can’t fathom why markets are doing so well despite the increasingly unhinged idiot in the White House and the already very negative effects of his idiocy. Goodness knows what he will do next, and we can’t rule out something catastrophic.
One snag is we are posting about a method that works so well, when there are far fewer such bargains around for any readers here now convinced. I agree with timarr that many of the shares and Trusts we hold and covered are still not expensive, but the time to buy them was when they were such obvious bargains for so long.
REITs are the only obvious bargain sector now …..unless there are others I’ve missed.?? There are a few shares like MONY (LON:MONY) and Pollen Street (LON:POLN) mentioned by timarr that still look good value and high yields too, but I missed a better buy opportunity than now.
Momentum investing can work well in bull markets, but I’m staggered by posters who say they’ve just bought shares like Polar Capital Holdings (LON:POLR) and Trusts like BlackRock World Mining Trust (LON:BRWM) at prices way beyond previous all time highs. Buy before those gains and not after.
If people didn't buy at or near all time highs, stocks wouldn't keep rising, let alone multibag.
In 2022, would you have said not to buy Next (LON:NXT) at its high of 8,000? It's now 14,800. Or look back at the chart of Games Workshop (LON:GAW) - theres a good chance any buy in the last 8 or 9 years would have been at it's then all time high.
af20001
Yes. Quality GROWTH shares like Games Workshop (LON:GAW) and Next (LON:NXT) often prove to be multi year multibaggers. But Polar Capital Holdings (LON:POLR) and BlackRock World Mining Trust (LON:BRWM) are both cyclical investments. Fund Managers, Miners, housebuilders and other cyclicals are best bought in their bear phases and profits taken after big gains ….ahead of the next downturn.
Even with staggeringly successful multi year growth winners like Games Workshop (LON:GAW) and Next (LON:NXT) buying near the peak can lead to big, if temporary, losses. e.g Games Workshop (LON:GAW) fell 50% from £120 in July 2021 to £60 in October 2022. Similarly Next (LON:NXT) has had similar big temporary falls. e.g £80 in 2021 down to £47 in 2022. With both, investors buying near their peaks might well have sold for significant losses.
(Also it shows that GAW has not been at or near all time high for the last 10 years).
So even with growth shares my preferred tactic of buying the dips…….that £60 Games Workshop (LON:GAW) price in 2022 was a great buy opportunity as was Next (LON:NXT) near to £40…..works far better than buying the peaks.
btw as an aside. I decided not to buy Next (LON:NXT) at 30p in my early investing days because it had quickly tripled. What a mistake that was!
Also I bought Games Workshop ( and posted on that buy opportunity) at just £4.60, 10 years or so ago, but for reasons I can’t remember I took a quick profit and didn’t buy again. It’s since gone up 30 times! I also regret buying Next (LON:NXT) around £40 and taking a modest profit. Next and Games Workshop are both classic buy the rare dip and then hold investments. Three huge mistakes I made……among many others.
What a great thread this is to have some superb posters sharing their thoughts/views.
I have set up a quality garp screen Tim but am trying to steer away from single stocks as I am hopeless at cutting losses.
Two you mention come up on it and would love yours/any other posters thoughts on these three MONY (LON:MONY) & Target Healthcare Reit (LON:THRL) come up on the screen personally view them as more income stocks than capital growth. I also have James Halstead (LON:JHD) keep coming up but long term share chart puts me off and fact it seems ex growth, plus's though stonking dividend and from memory third of market cap in cash.
Interested in any views on those three both positive and negative , I have been mulling adding Target Healthcare Reit (LON:THRL) to my portfolio as looks less risky than the other two.
The Phoenix.
Can’t believe you’re really that bad at cutting losses! I used to be hopeless too, but not since I made the simple change from selling because a share or Trust had fallen 15% or whatever, to selling for investment reasons. I.e selling almost always on profits warnings and other worrying news in an update.
Is it far better to react to trading updates and comment on them from the likes of Graham Neary than just because a share has fallen 15% or whatever for no good reason in between those trading updates? That 15% or 25% fall might well have been a superb buying opportunity.
A classic example was when people posted on Mike’s site that they had sold Standard Life (LON:SDLF) at what turned out to be THE low around 450p in 2023 solely because it had fallen to an arbitrary stop loss level.
That turned out to be a great time to buy, or average up or down and a terrible time to sell. The same point applies to so many falling shares if investors opt for selling at a fixed point instead of for sound investment reasons.
The Standard Life (LON:SDLF) Dividend yield was 13% at that far too low bargain share price, despite PHOENIX as it was then, promising annual dividend increases! How on earth could that be the time to sell? Since then the share has doubled.
All down to ego Ken in every other area of life I am a super humble fella prefer to stay under the radar but I do fall victim to I am right and the market is wrong syndrome.
Averaging down etc into losers when I should be getting out I still enjoy the odd dabble but trying to limit single stocks to 15-20% of portfolio but always encouraged when I hold some of the same as yourself and Ti.
Will draw a bit of a line under things as don't want the focus to drift to far off of trusts and etf's but interested in opinions on Target Healthcare Reit (LON:THRL) if anyone has one good or bad.
There is one that I have been looking at - Victrex (LON:VCT) - a reasonable yield (7.96) that fits in here - but may have missed the boat - it was 590-630 until ~Jul 6th. There was a positive TU (https://newsfile.refinitiv.com...) where guidance was re-iterated (DSMR note:- Full-year guidance maintained. Q3 revenue +18%. Year-to-date revenue +7%. “Q3 maintained the positive momentum we saw through our second quarter.”) and is now ~750. Not cheap anymore.
There was a profit warning in may, and this may be just a short lived relief rally - or the beginning of a long recovery.
There is a CMD 24 September and as the dividend is not fully covered, it is rather vulnerable.
I was planning on doing nothing until then.
A super post as always Ken but this reply is to both yourself and timaar. I hold many of the shares you mention luckily also having bought several a while ago at lower prices. Several experienced investors may think you are stating the obvious when you regularly emphasise the proven method of buying against the crowd when prices are on their uppers but that method works and it is invaluable advice, it’s a case of continuing to try persuading investors to take the plunge by going against the majority when most are heading for the hills. In the current climate, as you say, those opportunities are few and far between though and other than adding to Serica Energy and buying Enquest when the Iran conflict was supposedly quietening down I’ve done very little trading and after top slicing still sit on a higher than usual cash balance. I posted a while ago that I’d top sliced Polar Capital (probably a mistake) although did switch into Foresight which so far is nicely ahead. “BUT timaar” I do hold Mony and Pollen and agree that on latest newsflow ( Mony this week) both look to have promising medium term futures. Also fwiw one share I’ve recently bought is S4 Capital. That may sound like a horror show to many as share price wise it’s gone from a way overpriced boom to bust but I think the most recent newsflow hinted that the worst may be over and that value is very much there at the current bombed out share price. Could be right, could be wrong but I reckon the stock is worth a look. Good luck to all as markets currently stand and Ken, Charles etc do carry on posting those excellent ideas.
Interesting to see you also hold quite a few in my garp screen George , it's not throwing up many names at the moment possibly due to markets being expensive I will post the full list it throws up in a bit and welcome any comments on the names.
Thanks for the posting Ken. I hold many of the above in various portfolios. Although housebuilders are 'cheap' with inviting yields I am avoiding, comments recently from Berkeley group (LON:BKG) as to the state of the market, not adding to their landbank and extended times from purchase to completion make me cautious. Plus very sceptical of governments building plans.
Added Newriver Reit (LON:NRR) last week and looking at Chrysalis Investments (LON:CHRY) which is trading at 45% discount. Largest holding Starling Bank
I hold iShares UK Property UCITS ETF GBP (Dist) (LON:IUKP) -the distribution shares which pay a dividend of 3.4% or so. 22% of the fund is in Segro. So Gemini AI research says "Since SEGRO currently makes up over 22% of the ETF, its departure will cause a major rebalancing. The proceeds will be spread across the remaining holdings—meaning companies like Land Securities, British Land, LondonMetric, and Tritax Big Box will automatically see their weightings in IUKP increase significantly."
I am thinking of selling some of my Tritax Big Box REIT (LON:BBOX) - held across most of the funds we have- and buy more IUKP. The only risk in this is if the bid does not go through.
"companies like Land Securities, British Land, LondonMetric, and Tritax Big Box will automatically see their weightings in IUKP increase significantly."
With Segro yielding 3.4% and those yielding 6.1%, 5.7%, 6.6% and 5% respectively. You are going to get a big jump in your divvy next year.
Chris- I sold SGRO and one holding of BBOX- and bought some IUKP with 50% of the proceeds.
Latest factsheet from Brunner Investment Trust (LON:BUT) . I hold in my wife's Isa. Not done that well this last 12 months, but over 10 years has retuned 232.7%. One of the Trusts still around that I remember dealing in when I was working in the stock exchange in Institutional Investment trust sales back in the 1980's!
Molten Ventures (LON:GROW) Latest quarterly newsletter (I hold) https://mailchi.mp/molten.vc/j...
The discount of 23% (based on the AIC NAV of 760p though GROW have said now is 877p post the revaluation of ICEYE so discount is nearer 33%) in my view unjustified given the exposure it gives to European technology stocks- like ICEYE.
Some interesting innovations - I hold GROW.
I am though somewhat sceptical regarding delivery drones. Too many questions regarding things like; what will it deliver, at what cost, where are the depots & how do they stock all of the "stuff" needed for delivery, flightpaths & obstacles etc etc.
The examples on their website just make me want to put my head in my hands and cry; a family no longer needs to go out to the take-away - they can simply order and have it delivered by drone. FFS. Perhaps they could also have their Wegovy or Mounjaro delivered at the same time!!!!
Kevin, I would agree but maybe not our thing- bit like going to see Odyssey late yesterday afternoon to see dustbin sized pop corn coming in with many other viewers!
Made me smile Charles where I live I attend two cinemas the first is a small annual subscription one which is generally pleasant and well ordered all be it the seats are the old 1970's flip down style.
The other is a national chain which half the time is populated by noisy punters, looking at their phone for 95% of the film whilst munching on a lorry load of popcorn.
Thankfully with being semi retired I try and go between 2.30 -5.30 pm on weekdays if attending the larger cinema as most of the loons seem to have other things to do mid-late afternoon.
We went at 3.30pm, so quiet and no sounds of munching! Maltesers and crisps must have gone out of fashion
What if you live in a village 5-10 miles from a wagamamma!
How would the economics work - weight limits would mean only a couple of deliveries per load (which then brings into question about how they are offloaded correctly), costs of delivery potentially being uneconomical (for either the drone company or the Wagamama eater).
Our local Dominoes can't make it work for the pimply youth driving his clapped out old banger to deliver to our village - they will go as far as the bus stop in then next village down and you collect from there (never done it myself). I can't see a drone being the answer.
ken mitchell, brilliant response, thank you so much, helps me (and perhas others) understand this better.
All three are on my watchlist. I'm currently fully invested but i will be culling one or two of my existing holdings which in due course will free up some cash for future opportunities.
Fidelity Asian Values (LON:FAS). Manager talk tomorrow at 10:30 , live with Citywire. https://intouch.rdir.com/custo...
Latest ETF insider "In this issue, we ask whether UK retail investors are receiving the best outcomes from the retail service providers. We also assess the future applications for quantum computing within portfolio management of fixed income ETFs, the record inflows agriculture ETPs received ahead of the El-Niño shock, and the increasing demand for clean energy ETFs amid the Iran war and AI revolution. Elsewhere, JP Morgan Asset Management details best practices for ETF trading, VettaFi unpacks key considerations for ETF issuers looking at fixed income indices, and S&P Dow Jones Indices explores the key debates surrounding US equity market concentration." https://www.etfstream.com/maga...
This week’s Money Makers podcast with Andrew McHattie is very good for info on several Trusts:-
https://money-makers.co/2026/0...
Craig Martin of VietNam Holding (LON:VNH) latest views on Vietnam. https://open.substack.com/pub/...
The only thumbs up for Charles post on Vietnam is from me. Perhaps very few here agree with our enthusiasm for Vietnam?
The further the share prices of the 3 Vietnam Trusts fall and the discounts to NAV widen during the current weak spell for the Vietnam market the better. It will increase the gains when foreign investors start buying again along with local investors returning to their market. VietNam Holding (LON:VNH) has gone from a premium to 8% discount, and VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) 20% discount seems undeserved. When these Trusts are back in favour narrowing discounts would give the share prices an extra boost.
Below is the latest monthly update from VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) . It too is well worth reading. Note too VOF won the “best factsheet” AIC award last year. The link at the top takes you to all the various winners and runners up in each category:-
https://vof.vinacapital.com/wp...
I hold Vietnam Enterprise Investments (LON:VEIL) , VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) and VietNam Holding (LON:VNH) .
I did hold Vietnam Enterprise Investments (LON:VEIL) but sold at the start of the Iran war as I thought Vietnam would be disproportionately impacted by increase in energy costs. This doesn’t seem to be the case, relatively, so I am looking again.
More a question of forgetting to use the thumbs up, must do better. Appreciate all you and Charles do on here. And all the others too of course
I have been in and out of Xtrackers FTSE Vietnam Swap UCITS ETF 1C (LON:XFVT) over the last few months, once from a good spot you made at a local lowish point. I am bullish long term on Vietnam, but my positioning has moved to defensive at the moment - so a 10dMA might be a good entry signal with xfvt and I will take profits. I realise that most posters on this board do not move in and out with the frequency that I do !! Horses for courses as they say.
So - opened a small position in Xtrackers FTSE Vietnam Swap UCITS ETF 1C (LON:XFVT) this morning.
ken, I was in VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF), following you probably a few years ago (MW days), but sold as sp didn't seem to do much.
Thing is what's the point of discount to NAV, or a widening or narrowing of it, if it doesn't affect the sp? On a 3-5 year view VOF share price has not done anything much, bit up, more down.
Am I missing something?
The share price history is potentially not so relevant, some would argue ... is an MSCI upgrade and a possible lower oil price more important ? Or even that the historically flatlining share price is consolidation allowing a cheap entry point? Unfortunately my crystal ball is also cloudy ...
Dartagnan.
With VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) you haven’t missed anything. It has way underperformed the other 2 Vietnam Trusts.
So unfortunately my enthusiasm for VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) proved wrong. I did also enthuse about VietNam Holding (LON:VNH) which along with Vietnam Enterprise Investments (LON:VEIL) has done much better, but still both are only up 35% over 5 years, and the Vietnam Index is only up 30%.
VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) 5 year performance.it’s woeful and down 5%!
All 3 Trusts have lagged the big rise this year (though it’s fallen back recently) in the Vietnam Index. That’s because they collectively decided not to pile in to the rocketing Vingroup where the gains were so huge that it accounted for a big chunk of the Vietnam index. I.e it distorted the index.
Were these Trusts wise to stay out of Vingroup? Below is a short AI summary on that. I’ll reply further on your question another time and will allude to similar years of dramatic underperformance for shares like Aviva (LON:AV.) , M&G (LON:MNG) , Standard Life (LON:SDLF) , Legal & General (LON:LGEN) etc. It has paid off big time being patient with those, and I’m confident that in the years ahead Vietnam will prove to be a very successful area in which to invest. Coiled spring?
Here’s that paste of part of the AI summary:-
“You are right that the lack of investment in Vingroup (and VinFast) has impacted the relative performance of these trusts. However, these managers avoid the company on purpose. They do this to protect investors from high risks. [1, 2]Funds like the VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF), Vietnam Enterprise Investments (VEIL), and VietNam Holding (VNH) focus on steady, long-term growth. They avoid Vingroup (VIC) and its electric vehicle subsidiary, VinFast, for three main reasons: [1, 2, 3]
Dartagnan
Re your “am I missing something” question on discounts; you might be.
Discounts often widen in falling markets and decrease in rising markets. That exaggerates the share price fall . And in reverse as discounts narrow again when that market or Trust gets back in favour, so the share price gain is given an extra boost.
So the bargains are sometimes to be found where discounts have widened.
E.g VietNam Holding (LON:VNH) share price has been hit by it going from a premium to an 8% discount. I wouldn’t be surprised to see all 3 Vietnam Trusts go to premiums. The case why Vietnam could be an exceptionally good Country to invest in is well covered in the Monthly updates from the Trusts.
So fwiw I think anyone looking to invest in one or more of the 3 Vietnam Trusts can safely wait for now and perhaps see the share prices fall a bit further. But as soon as there are signs that the bottom has been reached, get in then.
Arguably VietNam Holding (LON:VNH) and Vietnam Enterprise Investments (LON:VEIL) are better choices than VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) but VOF is the only one paying a dividend.
Finally note that it’s VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) that has gone for buybacks big time. So far the result is way underperforming the other two and NO narrowing of the discount. What does that tell us?
A detailed and thorough note on Fidelity Emerging Markets (LON:FEML) published by Kepler - you will potentially need to register with them to read beyond page 1, but I have been registered for a while and have never received any unwanted guff.
https://www.trustintelligence....
I had previously used a UT (Redwheel Negt Gen EM) as my EM exposure, but at the start of the Iran war had sold out. I quickly decided to re-enter the EM sphere and used the break as a chance to reassess my mount and decided to go with FEML - looking at my notes it was down to a better 5-year track record. Although I must say I was not dissatisfied with Redwheel having had a good run. With hindsight though, it was a good move to transfer across to FEML as it has performed very well recently.
Although off some 12% since its peak in early-July it doesn't worry me overly as I think the trusts manager is well positioned and has a decent view on where he sees the future growth coming from. Obvious uncertainty around EM's and the current ME issues are causing some volatility in these type of funds.
2-year Comparison graph below;
Hi Kevin - it might be worth having a look at the holdings of FEML and considering whether that is where you want to put your money at the moment. I suppose it all depends on your time frame.
Thanks Cheeky Minows.
I was aware of the heavy concentration into tech, but this probably is the reason it has done so well recently.
Whilst I am not necessarily playing that theme in my other holdings (more fool me some might say) I am comfortable with this exposure as I trust the manager to use his initiative.
If the recent weakness turns into a bigger issue then I shall reconsider in the future, but it has good long-term record and still is at a discount.
My emerging market Holdings are Fidelity Emerging Markets (LON:FEML) , Artemis SmartGarp Gl;obal EM Eq.GBP, Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Markets Trust (LON:AWEM) Blackrock Frontiers Investment Trust (LON:BRFI) JPMorgan Emerging Markets Dividend Income (LON:JEMI) iShares Core MSCI EM IMI UCITS ETF USD Acc (LON:EMIM) iShares MSCI EM Small Cap UCITS ETF USD (Dist) (LON:IEMS) . Plus Vietnam and Poland through iShares MSCI Poland UCITS ETF USD (Acc) (LON:SPOL) VietNam Holding (LON:VNH) VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) Xtrackers FTSE Vietnam Swap UCITS ETF 1C (LON:XFVT) .
So I am pretty exposed to that area. Aberdeen Asian Income Fund (LON:AAIF) is another holding which I bought for the income but has also performed well.
Tha is again Ken. Can I trouble you just once more, when you have the time? You say you buy those on undeserved big discounts. Sounds perfect but is their anyway to identify 'undeserved' from those just doing poorly. Would you look at those with good 1, 5, 10 Yr performance now on a discount to NAV, or maybe just sectors and countries that you think k are likely to grow.
Hope I'm not trying your patience too far.
Identifying Trusts on undeserved discounts is up to each individual investor to decide. There might be posts here on a Trust that looks to be on undeserved discount. Make full use of the AIC website to help you.
As I’ve just posted I think the 3 Vietnam Trusts are on too wide discounts, and VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) particularly on that 20% discount. But that’s my judgement. Time will tell whether it’s right.
Ken, I suspected your reply would be along those lines, after all DYOR is key for individual shares. But thought I'd ask in case you had any thoughts/tips. I'll study your main 4 introductory points and increase my knowledge from there. Thanks for all your input.
BTW I had already bought small positions in a few ITs including VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) and Supermarket Income REIT (LON:SUPR), first coming to my attention on here.
Thanks Ken for taking the trouble to help me start to get to grips with ITs. Hope it helps others too. I think it's terms like hedging (never really see how it works, or whether hedged or unhedged is the better option), leveraged, managed wind down, compulsory redemption and a few other terms that have hindered my transition to ITs. But I guess every profession/ industry has to have it's own jargon to protect itself. Anyway I have made a tentative start with a few I've read about on this great board and will see how it goes. I'm sure I'll learn as I go along and I hope to have at least a 50/50 split in due course.
So many thanks again for helping my progress in this direction, and to all the other people who post here
Norfolk Oldboy
You can ignore those complicated terms if going for quality Mainstream Trusts. If you read my post again you can read all you need to know to understand Mainstream Trusts. It’s just points 1, 2, 3 and 4. Some of the Trusts have been in existence since the 1800s! Take advantage of the AIC website and the starter links I gave you to get you started.
Finally why not have a look at the Investment Trust portfolio here posted by number33 and see the wide range of mostly Mainstream Trusts in it and how all of them have done since first bought? The portfolio is up 137% since it started. Here is the latest update:-
VITP Friday update - week 538
This will be the last Friday update, future updates will be monthly.
Here’s a post for Norfolk Oldboy and any readers here thinking they don’t understand Investment Trusts.
Many of the posts here focus on the more complicated Trusts that are more difficult to understand.
MAINSTREAM Trusts are very easy to understand, and anyone looking for a largely leave alone portfolio can focus entirely on those.
1. They simply have portfolios just like ours , only vastly bigger in value. Like us they can, and often do, check out and report performance every day. They do this by publishing a daily NAV which is simply the total value of their portfolio. Some Trusts invest more wisely than others. So look for Trusts with a good 1 year, 5 year and 10 year performance record.
2. They also list their top 10 or 20 holdings and how big a stake their portfolio holds in each share in their top 10.
3. Obviously a UK ALL COMPANIES Trust invests in UK shares. And a GLOBAL Trust holds shares from a range of Countries. An ASIAN PACIFIC EQUITY INCOME Trust invests in Asian Pacific shares, with buying focus more on dividend yield etc etc
4. Mainstream Trusts (and all Investment Trusts including the more complex ones) can be bought either at a discount (I.e less than they are worth) or around NAV level, or at a premium (I.e more than they are worth). I look to buy Trusts on what I think are at undeserved big discounts to NAV. E.g a Trust at a 20% discount to NAV meaning I can buy a Trust worth £1 a share for just 80p.
That’s basically IT!! Understand the above 1 to 4 and you understand Mainstream Investment Trusts.
These are the key Mainstream sectors/areas/ Countries. All can easily be found on the AIC website. Just Google “AIC compare Companies” to access all the following mainstream sectors and every Trust in that sector or Country/Region.
ASIA PACIFIC
ASIA PACIFIC EQUITY INCOME
CHINA
COUNTRY SPECIALIST
EUROPE
EUROPEAN SMALLER COMPANIES
GLOBAL (Here is the AIC link for all the GLOBAL TRUSTS.
.https://www.theaic.co.uk/aic/f...
GLOBAL EMERGING MARKETS
GLOBAL EQUITY INCOME
GLOBAL SMALLER COMPANIES
HEALTHCARE
INDIA
JAPAN
JAPAN SMALLER COMPANIES
NORTH AMERICA
NORTH AMERICAN SMALLER COMPANIES.
TECHNOLOGY
UK ALL COMPANIES
UK EQUITY INCOME
UK SMALLER COMPANIES
Here’s the link for all the UK Smaller Companies Trusts. Note the superb performance of Rockwood Strategic (LON:RKW)
https://www.theaic.co.uk/aic/f...
Investor Meet Company this coming week.
Edinburgh Investment Trust (LON:EDIN) EDINBURGH INVESTMENT TRUST PLC
2026 AGM
21st Jul 2026 at 11:00am BST
TR Property Investment Trust (LON:TRY) TR PROPERTY INVESTMENT TRUST PLC
Annual General Meeting
23rd Jul 2026 at 2:30pm BST
plus
Geiger Counter (LON:GCL)
TR PROPERTY INVESTMENT TRUST PLC
Annual General Meeting
23rd Jul 2026 at 2:30pm BST
Deja vu with Seraphim Space Investment Trust (LON:SSIC) down again today so bought some more at 69.5p. Also a few more Cavendish (LON:CAV) -yield 8.7% and hoping some upside share price potential.
on the basis that if anything the NAV for SSIT has risen a bit from 177 in March and SSIC is being folded into SSIT in a 1-1 basis over 18 months or so ... either the SSIT sp is due to fall a lot or SSIC is due to rise a lot (or a bit of both) ?
Could be both or either. Part of the fall might be the acquisition of all.Space by York Space Systems (NYQ:YSS) . The York share price has fallen from $34 to $18 so the consideration value has fallen by about $19m. SSIT cannot sell 50% for 6 months and the other 50% for 9 months. SSIT held aal.space at £57m. At the moment the proceeds would only be around £36m.
Decided to try and run some calculations on Seraphim Space Investment Trust (LON:SSIT) NAV based on the current share prices of York and Hawkeye 360. SSIT reported a NAV of 177p as at 31 March 2026. York reduces NAV by 10.6p and Hawkeye 360 reduces NAV by 3.5p. But SSIT also recently stated a NAV fair value gain of 73p on ICEYE. Surely the recent falls are somewhat overdone? (wishful thinking perhaps as I hold). But then SSIT has been a bit of a rollercoaster. RSI currently at 28. By the way, thanks to all the folk here (Charles, Ken, so many others) imparting such valuable insight and advice. Learning a lot.
Could be overdone. I am a buyer, but not always called this one right. Though have made some decent returns from it. I sold out around the current share price before the big rise. In my view the most interesting way to get exposure to space- a diversified portfolio apart from now the % in ICEYE. I assume this will get resolves as no manager wants such a high concentration in one stock. If they follow the IPO they need to reduce : (they should not invest more that 15% in one company at the initial investment stage.)
Gemini AI summary
The 15% limit is a "transaction-point" restriction. If a company SSIT bought early on balloons in value because it is wildly successful, or if the rest of the portfolio experiences write-downs while one stock outshines the rest, the percentage weighting naturally shoots up.
The fund is not required to force-sell down its winners just because organic growth pushed the asset value past the 15% threshold. They are only barred from putting new capital into it while it sits above that limit."
To prevent the fund from becoming a one-trick pony, SSIT applies a few other strict portfolio limits:
Have they said it will be folded in a 1-1 basis? When I read up before the gist was it would be on a proportionate basis to be decided by the managers closer to when it happens.
Sold my Japanese index tracker iShares MSCI Japan GBP Hedged UCITS ETF (Acc) (LON:IJPH) due to the fall today of 4% in the index and fears of AI (yet again) boom ending. More concerning maybe PI's leveraged positions in the Asian market. Locked in a 13% gain over since Jan this year so rather take it and watch from the sidelines. I still hold Nippon Active Value Fund (LON:NAVF)
For interest and those thinking of investing in China by trust or etf. ”More than 9.4 million investor accounts applied for shares in the blockbuster initial public offering (IPO) of ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), with retail demand reaching about 212 times the shares initially available online.” https://www.scmp.com/tech/arti...
Aew UK Reit (LON:AEWU) possible bid for Alternative Income REIT (LON:AIRE) https://otp.tools.investis.com...
Here’s an update on 9 REITS.
I hold all of them, including Alternative Income REIT (LON:AIRE) and Aew UK Reit (LON:AEWU) since 2020. AEWU has more than doubled since then if including dividends. Gain on Alternative Income REIT (LON:AIRE) is way inferior.
Anyway:-
Aew UK Reit (LON:AEWU) has bid for Alternative Income REIT (LON:AIRE) today. It’s an all share offer and not cash. AIRE is up 4% today and AEWU down 3%. Trouble with all share offers is if the share price of the bidder falls so does the value of the offer.
Will Glenstone come back with an improved offer for AIRE? Perhaps not? There’s little upside for anyone tempted to buy Alternative Income REIT (LON:AIRE) now, but it’s well worth continuing to hold if already holding, for a bit more potential upside from current 72p if either of them come back with slightly improved offers.
There could well be further sector bids. Guesswork which ones unfortunately!
The dividend yields are a big bonus if share prices don’t move immediately. Some useful YTD gains for some too after The Commercial Property sector bottomed. But REIRT sector overall is still at bargain value level…..and hence the (sometimes opportunistic) bids.
Custodian Property Income Reit (LON:CREI) 89p and up 7% YTD. 6.8% dividend. Still well worth checking out.
Land Securities (LON:LAND) A sector giant as is British Land (LON:BLND) . 678p and up 9% YTD. Useful 6.1% dividend.
Living Reit (LON:LIVE) This is the new code for SOHO.It’s up 14% YTD but despite this gain the yield is still 7.5%.
Londonmetric Property (LON:LMP) 188p and flat YTD. Dividend 7%. Another big REIT growing bigger by buying (or trying to) others in the sector. e.g Picton Property Income (LON:PCTN) currently.
Primary Health Properties (LON:PHP) 92p and DOWN 6%. Dividend 7.5%.
Newriver Reit (LON:NRR) 81p.UP 17% YTD. Despite this the yield is still a very good 8.3% at the price today. I posted about NRR looking a real bargain ahead of the gains. There could well be further, perhaps significant, upside.
Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust (LON:SREI) 46p. DOWN 15% YTD and perhaps deservedly so for getting drawn in to the LMP bid for PICTON. Dividend 7.8%. But the big fall and big discount could well be providing a great buy opportunity.
Supermarket Income REIT (LON:SUPR) 86p. UP 5% YTD but down after the placing and retail offer news yesterday. Hope they continue to focus on Tesco (LON:TSCO) and J Sainsbury (LON:SBRY) for wise use of that additional money raised, for their now expanding portfolio. Nothing is much safer than the two big quality Supermarkets. Hope they avoid heavily indebted and struggling ASDA.
Supermarket Income REIT (LON:SUPR) was covered by several posters here in early 2015 when illogical share price fall to 68p provided a real bargain. Hope some here bought then.
Comment on these and alternatives would be VERY welcome.
on Supermarket Income REIT (LON:SUPR) (I hold v.small) I bought.
link to RNS: https://newsfile.refinitiv.com...
They sold 120,481,928 shares at 83p ~ 10% increase from 1,246,239,185 current share count.
Think the 1.4p fall is possibly a little overdone - the current SP is close to NAV.
Bought on the basis that food / supermarkets / rent on supermarkets will roughly track inflation and this is with good tenants.
Tenants:
Tesco 48%
Sainsbury's 27% – 29%
Carrefour 4% – 6%
Morrisons ~5%
Waitrose ~4%
Average term 12y, Most contracts are Annual, upward-only RPI or CPI linked. Typical caps are 4%–5%, with floors of 0%–1%.
I got 7% linked to inflation for the next 10-12y. I think the risk is greater than a gilt - but if all of those supermarkets fail at roughly the same time, you probably have other more important problems.
Please tell me if I can do better for ~the same risk level - or missed something
Ken,
I own basically all oh those and last Saturday posted this on another thread "Banks started outperforming in 2022 from a very low valuation basis, 50% of book in some cases.
Insurance started outperforming in 2024, agian low valuations, low p/e's, and in the UK, yields up at 9% (Chesnara, Phoenix and Legals)
Next has got to be the property sector hasn't it? Some big discounts to NAV, low p/e's and high yields. The NAVs are predicated on higher cap rates than historically and they have stopped falling, many are starting to go up. With rents also starting to rise, you should have a good couple of tailwinds."
If you want a bit of spice, what about Regional REIT (LON:RGL) ?
A recent report from Avison Young predicts annual development completions in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle, Leeds, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Glasgow will average just 911,000 sq ft per year to 2028 - down 48% on the 1.8m sq ft 10-year annual average. Grade A vacancy across key UK regional markets also remains tight at just c.3–5%.
This has resulted in office rents in the regions growing faster that in London. And obviously starting yields are much higher.
The company has initiated "strategic sales", selling the rubbish to you and me, and are obtaining valuations at about assets value. This is helping bring down the loan to value to about 40%. More sales are being done this year. Some of the receipts from the sales are going on capital spend to upgrade the portfolio so that eventually 90% will be EPC B or better.
The valuation is at give away levels: p/b of 0.5, div yield of 8.2% and a 2007 p/e of 10.2x
That is a valuation that suggests a value trap. Reasonable lettings news and a favourable regional office background suggest to me that the valuation we have is well underpinned and the value will probably rise.
Chris
I hold RGL and would agree with you.
Me too. I hold Regional REIT (LON:RGL) , Living Reit (LON:LIVE) and Newriver Reit (LON:NRR) . V happy with all, but they're at my portfolio % limit, and I'm looking for one more high-yield in the real-estate sector. Perhaps I'll look at Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust (LON:SREI) , but I wondered if anyone has an opinion on Unite (LON:UTG) ? Not an IT, but similar.
And kicking myself for not buying more Smiths News (LON:SNWS) yesterday, to bring it to a full position!
I looked at Unite I while back but dismissed. SREI IS BIDDING FOR Picton Property Income (LON:PCTN) -with Londonmetric Property (LON:LMP) . I hold PCTN but would probably wait to buy SREI until deal done and dusted. I have held SNWS for my wife's ISA for several years. As I said below it looked crazy cheap and the distribution network had to have value.
Agreed, i have a full position and have enjoyed the last 3 announcements.
I believe it’s Nov that we get some “official” news on the medium to long term outlook.
I’ve held Smiths News (LON:SNWS) for several years now and share is up 45% with some huge dividends on top, so I’m a very happy holder.
But in a generally very bullish update from Graham Neary today note this brief paragraph:-
“It won’t be free: the company is going to have to spend big on expanding its distribution network, and it hasn’t given us guidance yet on how much that is going to cost.”
Nor have they given us guidance on future dividends…..could be that specials might be temporarily ended for now? Worth it imo bearing in mind how transformational these new contracts are. It looks well worth buying Smiths News (LON:SNWS) if not already holding. I’ve got a full stake.
Chris
You’ve made a convincing case for Regional REIT (LON:RGL) and I regret missing the good buy opportunity in the mid 80s when pondering then whether it was worth the risk. Voids and still too large debt influenced my decision. RGL have disappointed so often after over bullish updates.
Once bought I usually hold REITS long term, but have been in and out of RGL several times, and too often at a loss. As long as anyone here looking to buy realises Regional REIT (LON:RGL) is risky it looks worth a punt, but having missed out on the recent 14% share price gain I’ll wait and hope for a better entry point.
Ken, we have very similar investment profiles i too "have been in and out of RGL several times, and too often at a loss."
The Times had an article yesterday on Nippon Active Value Fund (LON:NAVF) . The summary was it is a "buy".
The link is probably paywalled - https://www.thetimes.com/busin...
I used to hold and it did very well, but after Mello in June I was unconvinced to buy back in (see what I wrote on the June board) and am now using Schroder Japan Trust (LON:SJG) for my Japanese exposure.
I hadn't realised that NAVF had increased its Dividend by 70% last year to give a 2.5% yield.
I hold it Kevin- though as I said last month the Index tracker hedged has performed far better.
Could you list the isin code for the tracker Charles when you have a chance and is it an ETF or Trust ?
Hi Charles, paste it into Notepad or Notepad++, and when you copy it again it will lose the box and any formatting, so should be ok to paste as normal text
I know Paul-I rushed it and then could not cut it
Thanks Charles
RE: Barratt Redrow (LON:BTRW)
Few holders here I believe. They've snuck out a dividend cut in their trading statement. In essence they've replaced it with a buyback but maintained a nominal dividend to allow institutions with a income mandate to continue to hold.
I appreciate that the company is way oversold and that buybacks were part of the Phoenix proposals, but given that the dividend was less than the proposed buyback I think some kind of middle path was possible.
I've sold and will think about it from the sidelines. Price went up, mind you.
I also note that Golden Prospect Precious Metals (LON:GPM) instituted a dividend this week.
timarr
I also took the 11% profit on Barratt Redrow (LON:BTRW) today, taking advantage of the share price bounce that often greets buybacks news. No way do I want those at the expense of the dividend!
Buybacks so often reward sellers so income Funds who now want out will have a willing buyer (BTRW) of their shares. It will be interesting to see how Barratt Redrow (LON:BTRW) shares perform compared with the other housebuilders. Underperformance seems more likely.I hold and like Persimmon (LON:PSN) and added on dips to a full holding.
I was also disappointed in the Supermarket Income REIT (LON:SUPR) Retail offer news today. I didn’t go for it as they didn’t give a price, so it would mean buying more blind. I do like the sound of the 2 Tesco (LON:TSCO) supermarkets and the J Sainsbury (LON:SBRY) one they bought.All 3 are in big towns and yields, rent etc sound good. But is the dividend safe? I’m holding for now. Buying the dip has paid off both in my useful capital gain and maximisin dividend yield.
I’m pleased I got out of and posted why here on Renewable Trusts including NextEnergy Solar Fund (LON:NESF) and Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (LON:GSF) feeling the whole sector was unattractive. The share price falls since seem to have woken up holders to realising that.
Finally I’ll post on a few of them sometime, but worth mentioning that the Commercial Property sector looks cheap, and buying the right ones should really reward in time.
Probably no rush to buy, except for risk of not holding on a bid in a sector still seeing bids. Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust (LON:SREI) and Newriver Reit (LON:NRR) look too cheap, with discounts too wide on both and big yields while waiting. I hold both of them.
GSF had a chance with shareholder action. Looks like that has fizzled out. So I sold. I hold NRR, glad your back to thinking they might be attractive. SREI I sold as I thought you did on the joint bid for PCTN. I hold Picton Property Income (LON:PCTN)
Charles.
Thanks for replying. I didn’t sell Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust (LON:SREI) and have held (and posted upbeat here) several times, on Newriver Reit (LON:NRR). I’m about to do a REIT update.
My mistake, thought you sold after bid for Picton
I will just hold BTRW. It looks cheap on any asset calculation so the vultures will move in if the share price remains depressed- I would think.
I have sold Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (LON:GSF) . This board see intent on destroying what value there is and I just fear the next thing will be a dividend cut. Lesson learnt avoid infrastructure. I will be disposing of the few I have at opportune moments. Hopefully NextEnergy Solar Fund (LON:NESF) will solve that choice for me. That just leaves Renewables Infrastructure (LON:TRIG) which I am actually in profit a few % points. It looks pretty sound at the moment- NAV is holding up, dividend OK and they are selling assets and reducing debt.
Couldn't agree more see my replay to your comment on DSMR thread! Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (LON:GSF) is now worth so little just holding out for a bid to get something a bit more than the current bombed out share price. Bluefield Solar Income Fund (LON:BSIF) is going to be acquired by Drax (LON:DRX) . Already sold Renewables Infrastructure (LON:TRIG) at cloe to breakeven in terms of total return. Will be all out of renewable infrastructure then and won't be returning.
Echo that. I am going to think about TRIG.
NextEnergy Solar Fund (LON:NESF) Another one put's itself up for sale. https://newsfile.refinitiv.com... I hold. At a loss and in a way once all these funds have gone I might break even on these. Been a pretty sorry tale for listed infrastructure funds. Let alone for the dodgy ones like Digital 9 Infrastructure (LON:DGI9)
India Capital Growth Fund (LON:IGC) 5% holding discussed Skipper (BOM:538562) https://www.investormeetcompan...
With regards the retail offer from Supermarket Income REIT (LON:SUPR) , I have until 13:00 to bid for additional shares, but will not know the price until afterwards. Why would one do this, what am I missing?
I hold. I agree it is an insult to existing shareholders who are not in their magic circle. The dubious nature of the fund managers has been discussed in the IT strand in the past. However punters love to invest in supermarkets and it is commision free!
Morningstar best and worst Investment trusts Q 2 https://global.morningstar.com...
Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (LON:SMT) The fact Space Exploration Technologies (NSQ:SPCX) is 25% of the portfolio with a 6 month lock in would make nervous if I held it https://citywire.com/investmen...
Investor Meet Company thgis coming week
CC Japan Income and Growth Trust (LON:CCJI) CC JAPAN INCOME & GROWTH TRUST PLC
Investor Presentation
13th Jul 2026 at 12:00pm BST
Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Markets Trust (LON:AWEM) ASHOKA WHITEOAK EMERGING MARKETS TRUST PLC
Full Year Results
14th Jul 2026 at 9:30am BST
Worldwide Healthcare Trust (LON:WWH) WORLDWIDE HEALTHCARE TRUST PLC
Investor Presentation
14th Jul 2026 at 3:00pm BST
Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust (LON:SREI) SCHRODER REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST LIMITED
Full year results for the year ended 31 March 2026
14th Jul 2026 at 3:00pm BST
Vietnam Enterprise Investments (LON:VEIL) VIETNAM ENTERPRISE INVESTMENTS LIMITED
Webinar
15th Jul 2026 at 10:30am BST
Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (LON:GSF) GORE STREET ENERGY STORAGE FUND PLC
Results for the twelve months ended 31 March 2026
15th Jul 2026 at 11:00am BST
Land Securities (LON:LAND) LAND SECURITIES GROUP PLC
Landsec – the investment case
15th Jul 2026 at 11:00am BST
TwentyFour Income Fund (LON:TFIF) TWENTYFOUR INCOME FUND LIMITED
Final Results
15th Jul 2026 at 3:00pm BST
I think it was Ken that was asking about dividend ETFs last month, an unusual one that came up on my screener is L&G Qlty Eq Div ESG Ex AsPac exJp UCITS ETF USDDis (LON:LDAG) , only a 3.96% yield that can probably be knocked into a cocked hat by many UK trusts, however the exposure is interesting - Asia Pacific ex Japan All Cap equal weight.
Holdings : https://stockanalysis.com/quot...
An interesting find. Good 3-year performance record, but I suspect with 30%+ in South Korea this maybe why.
As you say Cheeky Minnows, a very low yield (Just ETF says its been around 5% for the last 4 years - but it clearly has an error in the last years figure as the qtly numbers are clearly above 0.26 euros unless they have missed one of the payments out???).
I hold in my Wife's Account L&G Qlty Eq Div ESG Ex UK UCITS ETF GBP Dist (LON:LDUK) which has done OK since we bought in July 2025- up 9.4% . Yield is 4.8%
Does anyone have any thoughts on the revised offer for Picton Property Income (LON:PCTN) from Londonmetric Property (LON:LMP) ,good or bad?
My understanding is the original offer wasn't very well received. I hold Londonmetric Property (LON:LMP), primarily for the dividend.
I hold PCTN and am happy to hold whether the bid goes through or not- if it does I will be happy having shares in LMP and SREI. The increased offer was just in Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust (LON:SREI) paper-the LMP was unchanged.
I hiold Living Reit (LON:LIVE) , which used to be called SOHO until a few days ago. The share price now in my portfolio is blank (leading to a valuation of zero for LIVE in the portfolio), even though LIVE's own stock page shows a price. I reported this via the green button a day or two ago but have had no reply and today the green button leads to a blank pop-up box.
Any ideas?
Yes I have the same issue, none of the data seems to be coming through for LON:LIVE since it changed from SOHO, as you say. I have also reported the issue with the data feed this morning via the green button.
Just as an update, I got a response back from Greg after lunch to say that the price for Living Reit (LON:LIVE) is now fixed - which it is. However, I have responded back to him as much of the other data - yield, P/E, P/B, Market cap, stock ranks etc. remains blank.
Golden Prospect Precious Metals (LON:GPM) is moving management to Baker steel who manage Baker Steel Resources Trust (LON:BSRT) . They have also announced they will start paying a dividend, according to Citywire. https://citywire.com/investmen...
Interesting and good article on Citywire. The reasoning for move to Baker Steel makes sense. You loose two "star" individuals but do not have the unknown quantity of Tufton trying to find its way into the resources sector. I had held off adding while the management situation was unclear but given the bit I have extracted below, am happy to add :)
"She pointed to the the open-ended SVS Baker Steel Gold and Precious Metals fund, which is up 335.6% over the past decade, storming well ahead of the MSCI ACWI Select Gold Miners index’s 179.3% gain.
Separately I hold BlackRock World Mining Trust (LON:BRWM) - and note their bullish sentiment. My thoughts are they are quality equity managers but did mess up in not locking in low term low interest rates (source one of the Moneymasters podcasts years back) which goes some way to explaining the 2021 - 2021.04 lack of return. Not sure that I would want to follow CQS Natural Resources Growth and Income (LON:CYN) over to Tufton especially as I do not currently hold this fund. So I will remain a moderately satisfied holder of BRWM for now.
I would add that this new "commodity super cycle" is (IMHO) another dish being served out of the AI/Data Centre Boom. It might not be the underlying cause, but it has a dashing of AI hot pepper. Its all connected to some degree.
I am still pondering whether to buyback into GPM. I will not buy BRWM due holding in Glencore. Part of my semi-retirement life is involved in rights for nature/ rivers etc
After listening to the latest Many Happy Returns podcast I thought it would be an excellent exercise to think of my SIPP as a football team, and therefore asked gemini to create me a team. Hope you don't mind me sharing here and perhaps others might give it a go?
Thinking of your SIPP as a football squad is a great way to look at portfolio construction. You’ve got a textbook balance here: a rock-solid, boring-but-reliable defensive backline, a hard-working midfield generating steady income flow, and some serious attacking flair up front to chase those big capital gains.
Assuming a balanced 4-3-3 formation, here is how your SIPP lines up on the pitch:
Both CQS Natural Resources Growth and Income (LON:CYN) and BlackRock World Mining Trust (LON:BRWM) are now down over 20% from their recent peaks. There were several opportunities to top slice BRWM over £10 and CYN over £4. I top sliced heavily then, partly because both had become far too big a proportion of our portfolios, but also wondering whether Mining sector has peaked. The jury is out on that.
Evy Hambro the Manager of BlackRock World Mining Trust (LON:BRWM) is bullish. Here’s the first section from a Citywire article today:-
“From Liberation Day lows, commodity markets surged last year until the US and Israel started bombing Iran in February. For Evy Hambro, the long-time manager of BlackRock World Mining (GB:BRWM), the reset caused by Middle East unrest marks a healthy pause in a powerful cycle that is still in its early innings.
‘We definitely think we’re in the first phase of a cycle,’ Hambro said.
‘Investor positioning [in metals and mining] is still very low in terms of portfolio weights. The sector is still very small [relative to the market as a whole]. It’s trading at a discount to its own valuation history. It’s trading at a discount to replacement cost. All of these factors point to the fact that this isn’t overhyped or in any way over-owned.’
I hold just under 25% of my PF in commodities - which includes Mining, Gold (not a lot & simply a single miner with hopefully good short-term potential), Agricultural & Coco ETF's, Uranium & oil (a small holding).
Whilst they have generally seen a decline in price since their highs of earlier in the year I am not inclined to take any money off of the table as I belief the medium to long term fur in all of them is very positive - there will of course be ups & downs and more active investors might top-slice & add, but I am holding these as core parts of my PF with the exception of Agriculture & Coco which are more short-term trades.
I think (and agree) with many of the commentators that we are in the early stages of a bull market for commodities. It is too complex in most cases to try and work out which commodities are moving where & why, so happy to leave to the likes of CQS Natural Resources Growth and Income (LON:CYN) and similar.
I hold Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU) (held for many years since it was Cluff Gold)Wisdomtree Commodity Securities (LON:ALUM) and iShares Copper Miners UCITS ETF USD (Acc) (LON:MINE) currently. As said I am avoiding BRWM due to Glencore holding.
I have just gone back into Central Asia Metals (LON:CAML) which looks very cheap although business is morphing into a more diversified / less of a cash cow. Barclays been buying recently - upto 5% and Peel Hunt raises price target to £1.95 - Massive dividend.
Fwiw bsharman I totally agree with you and based on the sell high, buy low method I’ve bought the shares recently as well. All about risk v reward trying to put the odds more in your favour and to me CAML currently looks a decent bet. Another one I’m hovering over the buy button with is S4 Capital, it’s had a very chequered history after the share price based on Sorrell’s past went into bonkers territory only for it all to end in tears. However I think signs of green shoots are appearing once more and at the current price is worthy of consideration. Take a look at the current Stocko page.
Bsharman, seem to be following you round the board today, are you concerned that Central Asia Metals (LON:CAML) might cut Divi to help fund Canadian mine development? They have historically provided great returns but not long left for their Kounrad dumps to keep producing (5 years?).
The yield is around 10%, and I bought for capital growth, so wouldn't mind a dividend cut if the mine development goes to plan and they evolve into a stronger, more diversified company. What do you think?
Bsharman I think a number of Retail Investors hold Central Asia Metals (LON:CAML) for the dividend and might bail if it is cut significantly. Might have a short term impact if and when that decision is made by the company - probably not for a while as the Canada deal hasn't completed yet and there may not be much visibility of the time and costs to get to first production til then.
Track record of management is good but this is potentially a sizeable commitment which might be more akin to their early days at Kounrad. Took a while for the cash to start flowing and they sensibly managed it fairly conservatively. Not sure how the capital growth timing will be realised though agree it looks good value here. I wish them every success.
here is a link to the Evy Hambro article. BlackRock World Mining Trust (LON:BRWM)
https://citywire.com/investmen... I hold...
An interesting piece on Vietnam and its three Inv Trusts from James Carthew at Citywire.
I hold Xtrackers FTSE Vietnam Swap UCITS ETF 1C (LON:XFVT) as my play on Vietnam and am currently looking at topping up before the EM status comes in in Sept.
https://citywire.com/investmen...
I hold XFVT as well. Plus VietNam Holding (LON:VNH) and VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF)
That was a very good Citywire article on Vietnam and the 3 Trusts, posted by Kevin earlier.
Posters here (and readers probably) have said that they don’t subscribe to Citywire. You’re really missing out on a lot of excellent Investment Trust articles and information provided daily by Citywire. It’s a free site and registration is easy.
The article today covered the reasons for the underperformance of the 3 Trusts compared with the high flying Vietnam index.
Key reasons are foreign investor withdrawals as they switch to big AI plays in Korea and China. Also the index gains have been dominated by VIN group which has 10 bagged since February last year and is now over 100 times current earnings.
All 3 Trusts hold VIN but not enough really to cash in on that extraordinary index distorting share price gain.
I’ve has a look at the 1 and 5 year performance of the 3 Trusts and the ETF XFVT held by Kevin and Charles. Over 1 year XFVT has done best and has gone up 44% …presumably reflecting a big holding in VIN???
Vietnam Enterprise Investments (LON:VEIL) Is up 23% over 1 year and has an advantage of being the biggest of the 3 Vietnam Trusts which may well favour it if/when big foreign investors return once Emerging market status is a reality from September.
VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) is only up 5% over 1 year and VietNam Holding (LON:VNH) Is DOWN 3%.
Over 5 years all 3 Trusts and XFVT have been dull performers. I guess many reading this will see that as a put off and best to ignore Vietnam Trusts and that ETF. I’m convinced that will be a big mistake.Progress over the last 5 years in Vietnam, has been extraordinary. That’s covered in the article today and in the regular updates from the Trusts themselves.When underperformance is so extreme it’s like a coiled spring waiting to be released.The catch up coukd be very big and very fast……just as when shares and markets get in to bubble territory the falls when they come can be fast and big.
btw…Vietnam is another example where my holdings (except recent buy VEIL) have done much better than the random 1 year and 5 year figures from a specific date. It reflects my usual tactic (that I must drive some to fury by repeating it so often!) of buying the big dips.
e.g compare the gains for both VOF and VNH in the Virtual Portfolio, with the latest update posted here by number33 on July 3rd.i.e 94% for VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) and 64% for VNH reflecting buys only a bit over 5 years ago on a significant short term dip.
After what seems like an eternity. GCP Infrastructure Investments (LON:GCP) has closed above 80p today, on double the usual daily trading volume, the first time since July 24. Hopefully this is the start of a move upwards. Although the 9% or so dividend income has been useful while I've been holding, some capital growth would also be nice.
It might also give some value to the buybacks that have been ongoing, should the rise continue.
I’m sceptical on GCP Infrastructure Investments (LON:GCP) as it is a long dated fixed interest bond proxy and therefore negatively correlated with long dated gilt yields. With Burnham coming in likely to spend more, borrow more and being fiscally more loose, I would expect long dated gilt yields not to come done anytime soon and thus see GCP’s share price upside capped.
Sold the remainder of my silver exposure Invesco Physical Markets (LON:SLVP) and bought more Nippon Active Value Fund (LON:NAVF) NAVF has underperformed the Japanese ETF I hold iShares MSCI Japan GBP Hedged UCITS ETF (Acc) (LON:IJPH) by 25 points- so IJPH is up 20% and NAVF down 5%. The larger companies the Index holds have performed well recently and the currency is hedged. NAVF buys into special situations in the small cap market and the currency is not hedged. So suffered a double hit. So hopefully the currency will stabilise, though it is a risk I appreciate, and the smaller cap sector will pick up. I also bought a few more Barratt Redrow (LON:BTRW) after the report from Phoenix Asset management. Links down this thread on the Taylow Wimpey chat.
I would like to draw to peoples attention Edmund Shings weekly article he posts most Saturdays - this week has some very sensible advice ref the current AI boom and some superb ETF selections that may provide a bit of a balance. I really like these - whilst I dont own any of the specific mentions I do hold some similar alternatives;
https://www.stockopedia.com/co...
VITP Friday update - week 538
This will be the last Friday update, future updates will be monthly.
Thanks for keeping this updated much appreciated No33
I am halfway through the first year of running a model portfolio based on a mix of investment trusts, REITs and ETFs. The idea is to help investors find financial independence via either accumulation or income while continuing to grow the fund in either scenario. It is currently tracking a little below the
Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF USD Dis (LON:VWRL) while having a superior yield of 4%.
For those interested it is called The Compounding Machine and subscription is both optional and free.
Very interesting. I can readily agree that folio design is as important as individual stock selection, which takes time. But on the other hand I wonder if you're not denying yourself the benefits of some UK dividend giants like Legal & General (LON:LGEN) or Standard Life (LON:SDLF) , which for me need very little oversight, given that they are so deeply enmeshed with this country's savings and investments, not to mention the continuing necessity of insurance. Just a thought, but thanks for sharing. 4% is generally seen as the sustainable drawdown for any pension folio, though mine yields twice that, with consequent extra risk and need for vigilance.
Thanks for the feedback Bruce. What I hold in my own portfolio is a little different and based on my specific needs, risk tolerance, time allocation etc.
The idea behind the model portfolio was to help people compound returns whether they are in the accumulation or drawdown phase of their investment journey. It drives me nuts how the financial industry assumes that once you start drawing down from your portfolio you will eventually run out of money. This is nonsense of course. For example, I retired and entered drawdown in 2018 and since then my portfolio has more than doubled while also living a comfortable lifestyle. The key, I believe, is to draw from portfolio income while continuing to compound returns via capital growth. And it is this principle that I am trying to demonstrate to people via a practical, model portfolio.
Unfortunately, I have had to curtail the focus on individual equities as I have run into some time challenges in my life (I hang out with my grandchildren 3/4 days a week) - in particular being able to follow and respond to news flow from individual companies. Nonetheless, the principle of compounding over the long-term still holds for a portfolio made up entirely of funds and it is entirely possible to tweak the growth/income balance within this structure.
Hopefully, I'll be able to keep running the model portfolio for a decade or more to demonstrate the principle.
Simon, this is now as material interest to me since my wife recently retired ahead of any pension entitlement, so we live very largely on drawdown from our ISAs. My dress rehearsal for this was maintain my stepmother's income for thirty years from my late father's trust, during which I managed to double her income while being obliged to pay out all dividends, plus any taxes including capital gains, where the regular allowance is halved. So I know it can be done, providing, as you say, that you keep it out of the hands of professionals who will gladly invest it for you until it's all gone!
Please keep us/me informed of your progress and any particular nuggets of wisdom learned along the way!
Is there a way to set stocko screening up for ETFs and investment trust. I really like using relative strength and looking for near 52w highs. Is there a way to screen that for investments trusts on stocko? And if now where would be a good place to screen for trusts? Many thanks
There is not. Use the AIC site or Just ETF. You can set up portfolios on the AIC site. Links in the intro.
Thank you. It's strange because something like SSIT shows up with a ranking. But Law Debenture (LON:LWDB) or Merchants Trust (LON:MRCH) gets nothing. Am I missing something on that front?
It is random in my experience. But no filter to select all Investment Trusts. Rankings mean nothing with trusts as 95% of them hold shares rather than operate. A few infrastructure funds could be viewed more as operating I guess.
I got a message from Hargreaves Lansdown today asking if i wanted to accept the Glenstone bid of 70p a share.
At that price AIRE is yielding 8%, and it’s at a 17% discount to NAV.
Why are Glenstone wasting their money on advisors other than to give me a little chortle at their cheek?
Molten Ventures (LON:GROW) Lates monthly newsletter https://mailchi.mp/molten.vc/p...
A really interesting portfolio of companies with some very good prospects. I am hopeful of the discount closing AND some appreciation in a few of the companies. Obviously ICEYE is the main one (10% of NAV) but Revolut is also another standout with approx 20% of NAV.
I bought into it a couple of months ago and am hopeful of a continuation in the trend seen over the last 12months (you could also say it bottomed out in 2023).
The all time winner is Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU) up over 20 times since I bough it as Cluff gold. Only bought it because Algy Cluff was an name back in the 1980's, though I only bought in 2008 or so when it became Amara mining. Been through several takeovers but has done me well. Sold obviously every time they went up 50%, otherwise I would be a lot better off! You just never know with investing- had a holding in Socket Mobile (NAQ:SCKT) -went from $4 dollars to $25 in a day. Sold most and made a bit. Sold the ruimp for not a lot. A complete ramp in the US-was lucky to actually sell before the price fell back. I did know Socket as sold their scanners, but never expected that sort of return- I though a major scanner manufacturer would bid for them at maybe $8 .
By the way some of our funds go for income, other capital gains and all are not equal weightings.
Cash uninvested 5%
Taylor Wimpey(LSE:TW)
I have sold Dunelm (LON:DNLM) - Ken's comments made me re-look at it and decided to take the loss. Only silver lining it is outside a tax wrapper so the loss will offset so hopeful gains this year. I have bought more Grainger (LON:GRI) . Saba yesterday announced they had increased their holding(through financial instruments) to 6.1622%.
Hi Charles when you say financial instruments I'm assuming you mean CFD's would you mind explaining how these work and what the benefit of them is to the likes of Saba in using the and not just buying the direct shares in the company.
From a wild guess I'm assuming you can put down say 10% through them but get the same exposure as if you owned 100% direct equity. The downside is I guess you have to keep rolling the contracts over a bit like a spreadbet which costs money.
If anyone else can enlighten me I would be grateful as I have seen many companies use CFD's but never really understood the benefit other than if I have it correctly the leverage issue.
They pay a margin to a broker who lends them the capital to buy the rest of the holding- "a synthetic derivative contract". The broker will most likely buy the underlying shares. If the shares go up, profit goes to Saba. If they go down the broker takes the margin deposit. To vote however Saba would have to physically own the stock. The broker profits from the spread and a finance fee.
Given they won't have the right to vote then Charles what's the benefit of them going this route other than the gearing effect if the stock goes up ?
They can call the stock of the broker to get the votes. This is my understanding anyway. I might be wrong.
Off rather apologies
Below are my current Investment Trust holdings with gains and losses since purchase and not including dividends.
Before that can’t resist saying that I agree with Charles about Smiths News (LON:SNWS) . I’ve held for years with a 41% gain since purchase along with fab dividend yield. The share still looks too cheap.The transformational acquisition and the costs that involves might limit special dividends short term. After that prospects look so good both for share price gain and big dividends on top.
Here’s the Investment Trust portfolio. Those gaining least might be the more interesting ones for checking out.
Jpmorgan Asia Growth & Income (LON:JAGI) up 31%
Chelverton UK Dividend Trust (LON:SDV) up just 2%. Dull…..for now.
GCP Infrastructure Investments (LON:GCP) up 2%. A fairly recent addition.
Custodian Property Income Reit (LON:CREI) up 14%. Useful gain and upbeat recent update.
Foresight group (LON:FSG) up 10%. Bought after positive comment on this bb. Recent upbeat update saw decent share price bounce.
Henderson Far East Income (LON:HFEL) Up 2%. This reflects buying a full stake at too high a price years ago. Good recent run but now both NAV and share price falling back a bit to bring yield back to almost 10%.
TwentyFour Income Fund (LON:TFIF) Bought this week. It’s only for income. Unlikely to be much capital gain. AGAIN Hargreaves won’t allow clients to buy unless they pass their stupid and irrelevant questions test. It’s disgraceful. The AIC and FCA seem to be making no attempt to stop Hargreaves doing this. Fortunately I’ve got ii as an alternative to Hargreaves and no problem buying with ii.
CQS New City High Yield Fund (LON:NCYF) Up 14%. But like TFIF this is a Trust for income only, unless as I managed with NCYF buying the very occasional dips.
VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (LON:VOF) Long term holding but only up 30%.I’m confident but no rush to buy any of the Vietnam Trusts until clear signs at last that they are going up and then with double plus of discounts narrowing.
Aberdeen Equity Income Trust (LON:AEI) Up 30%.
Newriver Reit (LON:NRR) Up only 7%. It’s still very good value and 9% yield too.
Aberdeen Asian Income Fund (LON:AAIF) Up 50%. The buy opportunity I took advantage of and posted about here at the time was the new enhanced dividend policy. The quick share price gain since means the obvious buy opportunity has gone.
Aew UK Reit (LON:AEWU) Up 48%. It’s fully valued now.
CQS Natural Resources Growth and Income (LON:CYN) Up 339%. BUT both NAV and share price are falling back now. 8% of NAV dividend policy means lower yield ahead unless (unlikely imo) NAV goes up a lot again. Current NAV is 347p. I did big top slice at over £4 but still have a large stake. At my buy price the yield is so high but the great buy opportunity has long gone.
BlackRock World Mining Trust (LON:BRWM) Up 240%. As with CYN I top sliced heavily over £10 but still hold a large stake. £10 is way beyond previous Mining sector bull market peaks. There were several opportunities to top slice over £10.
Blackrock Energy and Resources Income Trust (LON:BERI) Up 267%. Holding these 3 Commodity Trusts gave our portfolios a big boost.
City Of London Investment Trust (LON:CTY) Up 59%. Investors rarely go wrong buying high quality Trusts like CTY on the occasional modest share price dips. 60 years or so of annual dividend increases, but sometimes those annual increases are just a token amount.
Dunedin Income Growth Investment Trust (LON:DIG) DOWN 2%. Flat performer…..for now. Worth checking (ditto with Chelverton Trust) their top 10 holdings.
Henderson High Income Trust (LON:HHI) Up 21%
HICL Infrastructure (LON:HICL) . FLAT. Recent buy after posts here.
Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust (LON:SREI) Up 22% but share price has fallen heavily because of unpopularity of their joint bid with Londonmetric Property (LON:LMP) for Picton. That fall might well be temporary. Looks a good buy.
Supermarket Income REIT (LON:SUPR) Up 15%. Dull for too long. A possible bid candidate? News today of an advantageous debt refinancing.
Twentyfour Select Monthly Income Fund (LON:SMIF) Up 17%. As with NCYF and TFIF this is just an income share unless buying as I did on the occasional dip…..which then maximises dividend yield. It’s the only Investment Trust paying monthly dividends. There are a lot of ETFs paying big dividends and paying monthly……but I haven’t a clue which of those if any, are worth buying. PLEASE post if having any info on these.
Vietnam Enterprise Investments (LON:VEIL) . FLAT…for now.
VietNam Holding (LON:VNH) up 38%. Again flatlined for ages but prospects very good. See monthly updates from these Trusts for some of the key reasons why.
Alternative Income REIT (LON:AIRE) Up 24%. Currently subject to hostile bid from Glenstone at lousy price. Glenstone might have to improve their offer a bit to get it through.
Jpmorgan Asia Growth & Income (LON:JAGI) Up 25%.
Londonmetric Property (LON:LMP) FLAT . A recent buy and well worth considering.
I hold Picton- sold SERE and LMP as I held all 3. Favoured Aberdeen Asian Income Fund (LON:AAIF) over JAGI- up 42% since I bought for Amanda's ISA-July 2025. Gave up on SUPR and not sure who would bid for it- having supermarkets as tenants must be tough I guess- they seem to put pressure on all suppliers. I did hold and good yield, but as I recall sold at b/e after a couple of years.
I sold Taylor Wimpey (LON:TW.) a while ago because I decided a dividend cut was coming. I hold and much prefer Barratt Redrow (LON:BTRW) and Persimmon (LON:PSN) . Both were great past performers for me with very big dividends and shares more than doubling too. Aren’t future dividends when the sector eventually recovers again more important than the iffy 7% yield from TW, now.?
Barratt Redrow (LON:BTRW) report on the 15th July. That will be a good guide as to the state of the sector now and prospects too. That might help us decide whether the many current housebuilder negatives are now priced in. The last Persimmon and Barratt updates were imo much more reassuring than TW.s.
As you know just bought it. That is how a market works, differing views. I do think the new if confirmed PM will actually deliver. "Head North" is worth reading- him and the Liverpool mayor.
Great to see this thread ongoing month to month, for which continued thanks to Charles. Thanks also to the replies a I received yesterday on my controversial choice of Taylor Wimpey (LON:TW.) , which now has a 1.8% position in the Bruciefolio - tentative, but a card on the table. ChatGPT gave me this assessment of the proposition:
"My probability assessment
If I were assigning probabilities over the next 2–3 years rather than the next quarter, I'd say:
What I particularly like is that your downside is cushioned by being paid around 9% a year while you wait."
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But of course it's designed somewhat to flatter. Nevertheless I find it's a good way of having one's unconscious investing biases externalised. Mine, as follows:
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"Over the years you've gravitated towards asset-backed value—companies where the market is valuing today's depressed earnings while overlooking the underlying assets or franchise. That has been the thesis behind holdings such as UK renewables, M&G, Liontrust, Grainger and now Taylor Wimpey.
The approach doesn't always work—some businesses deserve to stay cheap—but when it does, you can enjoy a combination of a high dividend and a substantial rerating. Taylor Wimpey feels to me like another example of that philosophy. Whether it proves successful will probably depend less on the company itself than on the direction of the UK housing cycle over the next few years."
With that in mind, herewith the full Rogues' Gallery for July. I'm still very tempted by Syncona (LON:SYNC) but can't think what to sell in order to buy it!
AAIF, ABDN, ASHM, BBOX, BLND, BPCR, BVXP, CAML, CLIG, CSN, DUKE, FDM, FGEN, FSFL, GAMA, GTLY, HFEL, IPX, ITV, LGEN, LRE, LIO, MNG, NESF, NRR, PZC, OSB, PHP, POLR, RCH, RECI, RWS, SDLF, SEQI , SHHP, SOHO, SNWS, SQZ, SREI, SUPR, TFIF, TW., UKW.
Hopefully at some point Brucie the builders will follow the path of the banks which have been a superb part of the market to have been in for the last 2-3 years.
You're right about the banks. I'm not sure quite what could be more negative towards Housebuilders at the moment. I dabbled in Taylor Wimpey (LON:TW.) last summer when it was around the £1 mark; it's now 20% lower and has just had this latest scare around class litigation. Maybe my equal holding in Gateley (Holdings) (LON:GTLY) turns this into an each way bet (!), but it comes at the end of a dire macro for the industry, with the basis conundrum that we are simultaneously short of housing and yet so exorbitantly priced as to exclude many potential new buyers. I'm not sure we get out of it, but it does make for a likely deep value proposition in the house builders. Meanwhile TW pays out out a 9% (or thereabouts) dividend, which is certainly enough to keep me patient, though I am aware that much depends on its sales. At the end of the day, shares a priced at perceived risk and you get no reward for no risk. This applies to deep value every much as to extreme story stocks at the opposite end of the market (Spacex anyone?) . I would add that TW also passes an impressive slew of screens on Stocko, which may or not be pertinent. But it was the consensus agreement between Lord Lee and Paul Scott that finally persuaded me that this was oversold.
We shall see who's right - though possibly not for a while!
I've been in house builders numerous times and more recently my head keeps telling me that they must be a screaming buy at these levels - BUT after further consideration I keep coming back to the question as to what is going to be the catalyst to return them to their previous lofty levels.
Build costs keep going up which is eroding their margins. The Govt seems to have done little to create the conditions for a mass of housebuilding - Burnham has talked about mass council housebuilding, but this will be pretty low margin stuff.
I have therefore held off and am currently playing this area through Mortgage Advice Bureau (Holdings) (LON:MAB1) and Marshalls (LON:MSLH)
MAB1 I bought into way too early and have watched it retreat back to the £5 mark - but what I think people are missing is that it isn't completely reliant on new mortgages - it has a significant part of the remortgage market and supposedly there are a lot of remortgages due in the next few months.
MSLH is a recovery play - new CEO, decent divvy whilst I wait. I think it's had some decent coverage and if my memory serves me right I think Cockney Rebel may have written about in the past few months.
I believe Lord Lee & PS also mentioned Marshalls recently as builder proxies without the risk. But also Topps Tiles (LON:TPT) which subsequently warned. So they don't get it all right!
On another note, I'm disappointed not to find myself holding CMC Markets (LON:CMCX) considering the number of shares I hold! A 40% rise on the day is not to be sniffed at and the business has been going from strength to strength and by some metrics still good value. Will any income investors here be buying at this stage?
Hi Brucie5
RE: CMC Markets (LON:CMCX: Will any income investors here be buying at this stage?
The concern with CMC has always been lack of visibility - they predicted '27 net operating income between £460m and £480m in June, and a month later upgraded that to £550m - and that's compared to £392m in FY26. Owning this stock requires a liking for rollercoasters.
Peter Cruddas owns nearly 60% - he's 72 but shows no sign of slowing down. The willingness of the company to endure share price drawdowns while investing for the future through periods of lower volatility and earnings comes down to him.
Group policy is to return 50% of profits to shareholders - in theory that should mean bumper payouts next year but without knowing the scale of investment they're making it's hard to judge: certainly analyst expectations are muted, although that was before yesterday's update, which was on an unchanged cost base.
As CMC doesn't breakout variable remuneration it's hard to work out exact profitability but historically this comes in at 5% of net operating income. If we take that into account and adjust for their average tax rate of 27% then at £550m net operating income and an operating cost of £280m then I estimate a post tax profit of £170m.
They pay out 50% of post tax profits as dividends, so that would be around £85m and a full year dividend of between 34p and 38p, a dividend yield of around 5.5%. Or using ken's whacky yield on purchase metric, about 25% for me.
Even if this sounds attractive I'd return to my opening point - historically CMC haven't provided great visibility and yesterday's update may yet get reversed. Personally I'm hopeful that the diversification of the business means less volatility in future, but only time will prove that point one way or another.
timarr
Good post timarr, hadn’t realised he was in his 70s.
Ex-dividend date is 9th July @8.3pps, same as last year
Yes, earnings have historically quite unpredictable and volatile - a few years ago they put out a big downgrade completely out of the blue and over the next couple of years the share price went from above 400p to under 100p in late 2023. It's since 7 bagged as earnings have recovered strongly.
The big question is whether we're likely to see this pattern again. I'm hopeful the business in now more stable given the company's move towards more of a platform rather than a pure spread better. They also faced unusually difficult conditions in 2022/23 as the pandemic era boom in trading activity normalised - I wouldn't expect profits to drop off in a similar way today, at least not to that extent.
Hi Bouden
RE: CMC Markets (LON:CMCX)
I wouldn't expect profits to drop off in a similar way today, at least not to that extent.
I hope so too but I note they've managed to go from £460m-£480m net operating profit to £550m in a month, which doesn't suggest that much forward visibility ... I suspect the business will always have some underlying volatility, but hopefully the new B2B business will reduce that somewhat.
In any case, I see the continued stewardship of Peter Cruddas as a strong guarantee that the business will be run in the best interests of shareholders. He was willing to oversee significant investment into the business at the expense of earnings, and dividends (including his own), for three years - I'd contrast that with the owners of Hargreaves Lansdown who ran the business into the ground for lack of investment.
Overall an excellent company, just not one to hang your regular retirement income on.
timarr
On my black list- Cruddas - and spread betting, losses for 70% or so who lose money. Plenty of opportunities to invest without supporting this sort of activity. Plus I have seen comments for years about CMC- falls as fast as it rises. Anyway not for me and never will be.
Thanks Timarr. Impressive and most helpful reply. I believe IG group (LON:IGG) is an alternative in roughly the same sector. I think Graham Neary said he holds the latter rather than the former, but both likely to benefit from common factors.
Hi Brucie5
I hold both CMC Markets (LON:CMCX) and IG group (LON:IGG) - the former has overtaken the latter in performance terms in the past few days, but both have been excellent performers for me over the last half decade (and a bit more).
Whereas once they were similar beasts, as spreadbetters, increasingly they're differentiated by geography and business focus. Plus500 (LON:PLUS) too has moved away from pure spreadbetting. I wouldn't go so far as to say they are uncorrelated, but they're less obviously substitutable for each other than they used to be.
timarr
Not so sure Phoenix and Brucie that banks have been so great of late.
I was in Osb (LON:OSB) which has proved a hopeless case. I suppose a spread of banks would have been more successful. So banks, yes perhaps positive, but only selected ones?
Brucie, your portfolio shows OSB as possibly your only bank holding so your experience must have been similar to mine. I've sold them by the way.
I play the banks through Invesco STOXX Europe 600 Optimised Banks UCITS Acc ETF (LON:X7PP) - I hold.
They gave back a lot of gains during the Iran War outbreak, but have since got these back and added plenty more.
This is probably a great example of why I am only around breakeven for this year - I sold too many things around the end of Feb (start of war) and then missed out on the recovery & gains since. Kicking myself over so many shares & trusts. Also the slow decline of commodities is probably the other reason.
Hi Kevin is this one priced in gbp or euro's ?
Thanks Andy
It is in £££ Phoenix.
Thanks Kevin
Hi Kevin
You might have missed my several posts on this, but like you have now, I learnt the hard way that basing our investment decisions on our market guesses doesn’t work.
Like you I was convinced the markets would fall heavily on news of the war and then again each time there was new bad Middle East news. I didn’t sell, knowing I might be wrong. I was!
Yes - it's something I should know by now - tariffs, Iran War etc. Funny thing is that at other times it works eg. GFC, Covid etc.
Limited exposure to US has probably held me back as well, but I think this is less so, as there have been some good gains elsewhere and there are plenty of fund managers who back plenty of winning stocks without huge US exposure. I've never benchmarked myself against the S&P (or similar) and happy to stay in the dark!!!
When the Ukraine war begun I watched my portfolio decrease significantly along with all the profits. I froze taking no action. With the Iran war I was tempted to sell everything but in the end only top sliced the profits which seems to be turning out purely by luck the correct decision….for now.
Kevin
The only time I blanket sold a lot of my portfolio was Covid because the lockdowns were unprecedented, as were the potential disastrous effects of that on so many businesses.
No sooner had I finished selling, at by then depressed prices and big paper profits gone or even turned in to losses, than furlough and the various other Government and Central Bank rescue schemes started, and markets quickly bounced. I bought most of the sold shares and Trusts back again and often at higher prices than I sold them for.
To compensate there were some new incredible bargains as soon as the market bounce started like India Capital Growth Fund (LON:IGC at 50p, CQS Natural Resources Growth and Income (LON:CYN) at just 60p odd along with shares like Legal & General (LON:LGEN) at 150p and top up opportunity for Aviva (LON:AV.) at just 245p and many others to reduce the cash pile I had built up during the good times. Earlier during the huge housebuilder falls in the banking crisis I remember chickening out of buying more Taylor Wimpey (LON:TW.) at just 3p!!
In severe falls like the banking crisis I don’t blanket sell, but the number of sells for solid investment reasons increases. I will have already top sliced and taken profits to have plenty of cash available for bargain buys during bull runs like this one.
Very few seem to use what was my usual approach (and George54’s) when I was fit and healthy, of buying the big dips and then top slicing or selling during bull markets. Instead I see posts where people have just bought big winners like Polar Capital Holdings (LON:POLR) and CMC Markets (LON:CMCX) for the first time, AFTER they have soared to all time highs. A bit late to the party? e.g Polar Capital Holdings (LON:POLR) goes ex a 32p/3.3% dividend on Thursday. That yield would be near 9% at the 375p share price available in April last year.
Now for health reasons and the need to leave a “a look after itself portfolio” for my wife, I mainly tinker round the edges of what is now a very big yielding portfolio, where I know I’m sacrificing capital gains with this big emphasis on yield.
Hi Ken,
I don't think I have ever completely sold out of my PF, but I am wary of major macro events that could cause a significant drawdown which is why at times I do get out of what I consider to be higher-risk areas.
But with hindsight this has not always been either a) the right move or b) the chosen shares/funds have not been a 100% accurate reflection as I suspected.
This has always been undertaken with a view to "protecting capital" - nobody wants to give back their gains. I also think that being active investors we are obviously assessing our PF's on a much more frequent basis than an investor who simply locks away their money and rarely looks at their PF. By doing this I/we are potentially more likely to act on some shorter term signals.
It is a difficult balance - even top-slicing goes against the principal of letting your winners grow.
Perhaps the answer is to either a) do little or nothing on macro events or b) work harder at pre-empting them as we all know that the likelihood of getting out in time is low, although this needs to be balanced with the risk that things don't settle quickly and the downward grind goes on for a long-time and in that case we may well regret not getting out sooner.
Hi dartagnan.
Unfortunately your choice of Osb (LON:OSB) was with hindsight the wrong bank. It’s up just 5% over 1 year.
The key UK quoted banks Barclays (LON:BARC) Lloyds Banking (LON:LLOY) and HSBC Holdings (LON:HSBA) are up between 50% and over 60% over 1 year. Natwest (LON:NWG) is the laggard, but even so 1 year gain is 43%.
My holding of Osb (LON:OSB) shows a gain of just under 20% not including dividends. I'm away from my computer so this is from my Stocko folio and I can't recall exactly how long ago I bought t, I'm certainly not complaining. Worth also saying that I bought it as a property proxy since it lends for BTL, not not strictly comparable with the likes of Lloyds Banking (LON:LLOY) or HSBC Holdings (LON:HSBA) . I would bridle somewhat at being told (Ken) that I bought the wrong bank. A constructed folio has many different parts performing different functions within a common set of objectives. My strategy has been for hight reinvested dividends. Osb has served me well enough, even if I perfectly.
Sorry Brucie that you misunderstood my “wrong bank” comment. It’s my fault for using that word. I was responding to dartagnan’s “not so sure that banks have been so great” comment.
I know nothing about Osb (LON:OSB. The “wrong bank” comment was referring to the 1 year share price performance where with the benefit of hindsight, it was the wrong bank, but only from the angle of 1 year share price performance.
Hope that stops you bridling!
No problem, Ken. We know each other well enough by now not to take offence notwithstanding our respective ideosyncracies. So your posts are always well taken as far as I'm concerned.
Unlike that old farmer from the Mike Walters days Brucie who used to go nuts every time Ken pulled him on Eden and Bluejay
OSB is a bit too exposed to high interest rates for my liking - not only does this increase their cost of funding as they have to put up the interest on their saving accounts, but it will also dampen demand for BTL mortgages. Would be a buyer if I think rates were likely to come down but don't see much likelihood of this for the time being.
Dear all, I bought Secure Trust Bank (LON:STB) in August 2025 and Banco Santander SA (LON:BNC) February 2025 buying and selling along the way. I wanted to add a bank to my portfolio and to be honest found making a selection difficult and there has been a bit of luck. Currently Secure Trust Bank (LON:STB) is +42% and Banco Santander SA (LON:BNC) +85%
Brucie, I use Gemini and Claude Ai “Taylor Wimpey is a classic, deeply cyclical UK housing recovery play that has recently hit its fundamental transition point. While a tough macroeconomic backdrop of mortgage market pressure and sticky build-cost inflation recently forced management to execute a painful dividend cut—cutting the final payout and shifting to an asset-backed 5% distribution model—this rebasing significantly protects the balance sheet and makes the forward ~7.7% yield vastly more sustainable. Current broker sentiment reflects this near-term pain; widespread earnings downgrades for 2026 have pushed the average broker target price down to 91p–92p (offering a modest 13%–17% upside from the current ~80p share price), with aggressive bears floating a floor of 61p and long-term recovery bulls aiming as high as 137p. For a patient investor building a position slowly, this creates a compelling opportunity to lock in a rebased income stream at a deep valuation discount, positioned to capitalise on a massive cyclical rebound the moment UK interest rates pivot and legacy cladding cash-drains begin to ease.”
I have bought a few and will see what the price does. Thanks for mentioning. The price target Claude had on average was 109p and thought Gemini cautious !
I put into ChatGPT what the change to their dividend policy was as I have a nagging doubt that the Stocko forecasted number will be met as I know they tweaked their policy - this is what I got back;
The significant change announced by Taylor Wimpey in the past few months was not simply a change in the amount it returns to shareholders, but a change in how those returns are delivered.
Previously, the company's distribution policy was:
In its March 2026 full-year results, Taylor Wimpey updated this framework. Under the new policy:
For 2025 (announced in March 2026), that meant:
Together these total roughly £322 million, which is consistent with the new framework.
Why they made the change
Management said the revised framework gives it greater flexibility in how it returns excess capital while keeping the overall level of shareholder distributions broadly unchanged. Buybacks can be more attractive than dividends when management believes the shares are undervalued or when they provide a more efficient way to return capital. The company's broader capital allocation priorities remain:
So, the key change is that Taylor Wimpey has shifted from an almost entirely dividend-based payout policy to a more flexible capital return policy that combines ordinary dividends with share buybacks, while maintaining the same overall distribution target of 7.5% of net assets (minimum £250 million per year).
The dividend policy was changed , hopefully 7 % will be about right.
Thanks Charles. Assuring to have you on board! 7.7% dividend will do me while we wait for the share price to base out. It feels a bit like Liontrust Asset Management (LON:LIO) , in a different sector, which investors have all but abandoned. The recovery begins with a dividend rebasing and management taking a good hard look at what they do well and can do better. Neither of them great businesses, except by scale and powers of resilience to outlast secular downturn and come out the side. That includes strong balance sheet, which is generally the first thing Paul Scott looks at.
Brucie, this summary of the Phoenix Asset Management 430 page report on Barratt Redrow (LON:BTRW) might be of interest in this GeminiAI summary of Phoenix Asset Management re Barratt Redrow (LON:BTRW) https://docs.google.com/docume... Beware I have not checked that Gemini has pulled all the facts correctly. The full 430 page report is here. https://www.buybarrattback.com...
Thanks Charles. I think all house builders are now cheap. A quick question to ChatGPT gave this response as to relative suitability of TW./BTRW: "If I had to choose just one today for Bruciefolio, I'd probably keep Taylor Wimpey because it aligns more closely with your "Enough-ism" philosophy of dependable income. But if Barratt Redrow continues to languish at a substantial discount to book while buying back stock aggressively, I wouldn't be surprised if, over the next three to five years, it outperformed Taylor Wimpey on total return."
Thank you. I bought a few more BTRW today. Seem to be a few institutions in support of the PAMP report. Just need SABA to get involved !
The performance of the biotech sector surprised me last month. I had sold out of the sector at the start of Trump's folly in Iran.It would seem it is an increase in M&A , a better understanding of Trump's tariffs and dug-pricing reforms.BGT has gearing of 11% which would have helped. Might be worth a look at the sector. Crystal Amber Fund (LON:CRS) went down- (I hold) but it is a one product punt. India looks like it might be coming back into favour, though I am not rushing to increase my exposure. I hold Ashoka India Equity Investment Trust (LON:AIE) .China continues to fall, currently I have no holding but it must be nearly time to look at stocks like Fidelity China Special Situations (LON:FCSS) . Mining stocks did badly, though as I mentioned last month I am not invested. If I found a way to avoid Glencore then could be an interesting entry point. GPM was down and that only invest's in precious metals. I have a small amount of a Silver ETF(Invesco Physical Markets (LON:SLVP) left after selling the bulk- which has not done great recently- and Aluminium (Wisdomtree Commodity Securities (LON:ALUM) and Copper (iShares Copper Miners UCITS ETF USD (Acc) (LON:MINE) are faring a bit better-again I hold exposure through ETF's only.
The bid for SEGRO (LON:SGRO) was a surprise and be interesting to see if/what the bid is increased to. I hold that and Tritax Big Box REIT (LON:BBOX) . I did read that Slough residents are complaining the data centres are increasing the temperature around them a few degrees. Whether a fact of a "story" I am not sure. Demand for data centres does still seem strong.
I guess on ebig question is whether Andy Burnham will stimulate house building. I had read "Head North" earlier in the year- my eldest daughter lives in Manchester and lent me it. Some of his ideas are sound and de-centralisation and control of essential utilities I would agree with. Whether he has the funds and support to drive these policies through we will see.
Seraphim Space Investment Trust (LON:SSIT) fell back sharply, no great surprise. The weakness of the "C" shares does. Bit of a deja vu moment. I will be interested to see the first portfolio, which I assume will be either October when results are announced. SSIT year end is June 30th. But there could be news sooner I guess.
Finally a non-Trust I have held for several years Smiths News (LON:SNWS) is having some attention. Couple of new contracts announced. I bought for the yield, which is still 7.34% after the rise, but I bought on nearer a 10% yield. It was. written off then as a dying business, which I did not get . It has a hugely efficient distribution chain which could be used for fulfilling or collecting many things.
Have a good July.
An interesting round up. I hope I’m not too presumptuous in saying on behalf of all those who don’t comment very much many thanks for all you work on this thread!
Thank you Phil
Charles, you've written before (& I've struggled to find again) about holdings in your wife's ISA. I need to organise something similar for my wife, you couldn't give us your thoughts on safer IT holdings could you?
I am not sure I would be the best , though Amanda does have a relatively safe portfolio.
Ashoka India Equity Investment Trust (LON:AIE) Aviva (LON:AV.) B.P. Marsh & Partners (LON:BPM) Chesnara (LON:CSN) Fidelity Special Values (LON:FSV) Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (LON:GSF) iShares Edge MSCI Wld Val Fctr UCITS ETF USD A (LON:IWFV) M&G (LON:MNG) NextEnergy Solar Fund (LON:NESF) Real Estate Credit Investments (LON:RECI) Smiths News (LON:SNWS) Tritax Big Box REIT (LON:BBOX) .
Also some open ended funds Artemis SMTGARP UK Equity C GB, IFSL Meon Adaptive Growth P GBP Acc, YFS Argonaut Absolute Return R GBP Acc and Argonaut Flexible A GBP Inc
In her dealing a/c, outside of a wrapper: Aberdeen Asian Income Fund (LON:AAIF) AVI Global Trust (LON:AGT) Brunner Investment Trust (LON:BUT) Custodian Property Income Reit (LON:CREI) Dunelm (LON:DNLM) L&G Qlty Eq Div ESG Ex UK UCITS ETF GBP Dist (LON:LDUK) SEGRO (LON:SGRO) Tritax Big Box REIT (LON:BBOX) . Open ended Man Dynamic Income I H GBP Cap, Ranmore Global Equity Institutional GBP
Also some short dated low coupon Gilts. She is not getting a state pension yet and is retired-she sold her retail business in 2020 .
Dunelm has been the worst performer- only loss in the dealing account. Gore Street and NextEnergy in the ISA account are not great either, though income was OK.
Many thanks!
I hold quite a few Charles has bought for his wife’s portfolio and like most of them. Many of them have done very well.It’s the few losers I like least.
Dunelm (LON:DNLM) one of the very few losers, is a store we really like with a fabulous range and very competitive prices. But I sold a good while ago before the share price tumbled because of the threat from wretched Chinese competitor Temu. It might be priced in now but there were some incredible bargains in their wide ranging sale with big reductions in already low prices when we last went, which hints at a profits warning ahead perhaps? There were also far fewer queuing at the tills. Another hint?
Don’t let me put you off, but a problem with setting up a portfolio now is it’s doing so in a strong bull market. It’s far better and easier to do, when there’s a far wider choice of obvious buy opportunities.
Wise words Ken if one is prepared (and that is the hard bit) bear markets are gifts to pick up quality on the cheap.
The flip side is bull markets run far longer than bear markets so you can sometimes be waiting 4-7 years for a really good entry point March/April in early covid was probably the last one.
2022 also wasn't brilliant but post then most of the 10-20% S&P drawdowns have been caused by dear old Donald who then panics reverses course and the markets bomb back up.
Heres three steady eddie starter ideas for you Ian note all are Oeics so aren't single day dealing, Artemis Distribution, Orbis Balanced and Orbis Cautious