24th Oct 2013 15:39
LONDON (Alliance News) - Manchester & London Investment Trust PLC Thursday said it had another "depressingly disappointing year for capital returns", underperforming its benchmark by 20.5% in the 12 months to end-July.
Manchester & London's net asset per share decreased by 0.6% over the last financial year, which is an underperformance against its benchmark, which generated an increase of 19.9%.
"Our problem remains the same as in 2012. Although, we do not believe our holdings were overvalued to start with, they have continued to de-rate for the last two years. The sectors that have felt this most acutely are the Mining and the Oil & Gas sectors," the trust's investment manager said in a statement.
"The majority of the fund is exposed to the cyclical sectors such as Mining, Oil & Gas and Industrial Engineering that have continued to perform badly and hence we remained somewhat static as the market moved ahead of us," Peter Stanley, the trust's chairman, added.
Stanley said the trust would remain patient as it expects that, in the medium term, the future earnings power of the developed markets will be overtaken by the developing markets.
The trust increased its full year dividend to 13.75 pence from 13.0 pence last year.
The trust's shares were Thursday quoted at 301.70 pence, down 0.3%.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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