12th May 2016 12:04
LONDON (Alliance News) - Henderson European Focus Trust PLC, which invests mainly in stocks listed in continental Europe, on Thursday said its manager will "focus relentlessly" on a strategy built on active stock and sector selection, even amid macroeconomic uncertainty.
Over the half year ended March 31, the trust's net asset value per share total return was 6.3% and the FTSE World Europe excluding UK Index in sterling terms total return was 6.7%. Over the same period, the trust's share price total return was -1.5%.
The trust declared an interim dividend of 7.5p per share, up from 7.0p a year earlier.
Chairman Rodney Dennis reiterated his past views about the importance of the effect of currencies on equity markets.
"Recent months have, once again, demonstrated this phenomenon: it is telling, for example, that a strong yen has gone hand in hand with a weak Japanese equity market, a strong euro has been a bedfellow of weakness in European equities while the US and UK equity markets have "benefited" from respective weaker currencies," the chairman said.
Another important factor, he said relates to central banks and their experiments with monetary policy, such as negative interest rates and quantitative easing. Dennis said that recent moves by Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, to take the Eurozone into negative interest rate policy are "indeed extraordinary" actions.
With the long term result of such experiments unclear, Dennis said "we cannot help harbour a sense of unease."
Finally, Dennis said, the UK's June 23 referendum on whether to remain a member of the European Union or leave "could result in a period of currency and market volatility as expectations adjust to events."
Shares in Henderson European Focus were down 0.8% at 981.86 pence.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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