Sarsen Stone - Barbury Castle
Returns of selected markets over the last week and since 1st January. This week is sorted by the last week. Sorted by the last year can be found at the end of this post.
For the second week running, US large cap technology sold off small cap bounced back. NASDAQ was down 3.6%, while the Russell 2000 was up 1.7%.
In general, it wasn’t a good week for equities, although the UK fared relatively well compared to the US, Continental Europe, and the Far East. Bitcoin and gold were up in apparent reaction to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump and his choice of JD Vance, a Bitcoin advocate, as his running mate.
JIC Portfolio
The JIC Portfolio was down 0.8% last week, compared to -1.1% for the FTSE All Share. JIC is up 11.2% this year - the FTSE All-Share is up 8.0%.
For the five years to 5 July, JIC is up 58.1%. Over the same period, the FTSE All-Share TR Index was up 30.2%.
The AIM All-Share is up 3.8% this year, the FTSE 250 is up 9.0%, and the FTSE Small Cap (Ex Investment Co) is up 10.2%.
JIC Funds' Portfolio
The Funds’ Portfolio was down 1.3% last week compared to a drop of 1.5% for the FTSE All-World (GBP, TR) Index. This year, the Funds’ Portfolio is up 9.0 % v +11.3% for the FTSE All-World.
More than 5 per cent movers last week.
Positives: Hvivo +13.4%, VanEck Crypto & Blockchain Innovators ETF +9.7%, JP Morgan US Smaller Companies +5.8%.
Negatives: BlackRock World Mining -5.5%, Polar Capital Technology – 7.8%, Glencore -7.6%.
New Highs last week
Three-month high from Temple Bar Investments, VanEck Crypto & Blockchain ETF, JP Morgan US Smaller Companies, L&G Gold Miners ETF, PayPoint, Schroder UK Mid Cap, Hvivo, NextEnergy Solar Fund, Me Group, IG Group, Capita, Herald Investment Trust.
All-time highs from Polar Capital Global Healthcare, Strategic Equity Capital, JP Morgan American, and Bloomsbury Publishing.
New Lows
Three months low: Fundsmith, Smithson Investment Trust, Glencore and Serica Energy.
Last week’s trades, news, and ex-dividends
Trading updates from Bloomsbury, Me Group, Hvivo, Premier Foods, Hargreaves Lansdown and Niox. They were all pretty good.
In the JIC Portfolio, I added a position in Capita and trimmed IG Design to 5.0%.
Upcoming Events and ex-dividends
H1 Trading update from Luceco on Tuesday and H1 Results from IG Group on Thursday.
Bloomsbury Publishing goes ex-dividend 10.99p on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Serica pays its dividend, and on Friday, Premier Foods pays its.
19.7% of the JIC Portfolio comprises six commodity holdings – down from 20.1% last week.
