28th Jun 2016 11:30
LONDON (Alliance News) - Invesco Asia Trust PLC on Tuesday said it saw a decline in net asset value in its year to the end of April, although it noted this was a "significant outperformance" when compared to its benchmark.
The investment trust, which invests in Asian and Australasian companies, said its net asset value per share total return was down 7.1% during the year, although this was ahead of its MSCI All Counties Asia Pacific ex-Japan Index which fell 14.3% over the same period.
"The twelve months to April 30 has seen a notable decline in Asian markets, with higher levels of volatility than usual. Factors such as China's slowing economic growth, significant movements in Association of Southeast Asian Nations currencies and uncertainty over the direction of US interest rate policy, all contributed to this decline," said Chairman Carol Ferguson.
"However, we have seen economic activity indicators beginning to stabilise this year in China and elsewhere, with earlier concerns over China's market and currency interventions easing. A healthy degree of scepticism about the sustainability of the economic pickup prevails but valuations remain low across parts of the region's equity markets," Ferguson added.
The chairman noted that the UK vote for Brexit last week "is likely to accentuate market uncertainty in the short term. Against this volatile and uncertain backdrop, Asian equities appear relatively good value compared to other global equity markets."
Invesco Asia Trust said its final dividend will be 3.65 pence per share, in line with a year earlier.
Shares in Invesco Asia Trust were up 0.4% at 192.30p on Tuesday.
By Hannah Boland; [email protected]; @Hannaheboland
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