Week ending 5th July 2013 (Subsequent weeks appear in comments below)

A good week for equity markets with the FTSE All Share (Total Return) Index returning 2.7%.
It is good to see S&P 500 Index close last night above the 50 day moving average after threatening to do so for the last week or so; the trend looks pretty good. Meanwhile, in another bullish sign, small companies in the US, as represented by the S&P 600 Index, closed at new highs last night.
In the UK the FTSE All Share and FTSE 100 are just shy of the 50 day moving average

I made the following changes to my portfolio over the last week.

On Tuesday I increased my holding in (£AIE) Anite to 4.0% following results. The shares are valued at about 14.5x April 2014 earnings for 16% growth which looks attractive to me especially as I would expect consensus forecasts to rise following the results.

On Tuesday I bought back into (£GAH) Gable Holdings following its results on the previous Friday which involved a restatement of prior year results. I felt that after a near 40% fall in the share price and with forecasts for the coming years putting the shares on a PE ratio of 4.7x 2013 for a doubling in earnings and 3.4x December 2014 for a further 36% growth, it was worth dipping my toes back in.

On Thursday I bought a new holding in (£FSC) F&C US Smaller Companies Trust in order to catch the performance of US Smaller Companies which have clearly "broken out" relative to larger cap. See chart (Courtesy of Redburn partners)

 

 


The JIC portfolio had a poor week relative, up only 0.8%. I have observed over the last month that it seems to be exhibiting "defensive" characteristics, in that it is holding up well in falling markets but struggling to keep up on good days. Needs some thought!


Three of my holdings are down more than 10% since purchase; (£AGTA) Agriterra, (£POL) Polo and (£FENR) Fenner. Am I doing a good impression of an ostrich?

www.JohnsInvestmentChronicle.com

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