12th May 2020 17:53
(Alliance News) - North Atlantic Smaller Cos Investment Trust PLC on Tuesday reported a mixed performance against its benchmark indices for its recently ended financial year.
As at January 31, the trust's net asset value per share rose by 18.2% to 4,384 pence, compared to 3,710p the same period the same date the year before.
Net assets excluding liabilities increased by 17% year-on-year to GBP620.7 million from GBP531.4 million. During the period, 165,610 shares were repurchased and cancelled.
The trust underperformed against the S&P 500 Composite index, which returned 19.3%, but outperformed against the Russell 5000 Index, which returned 7.6%.
North Atlantic Smaller's share price as at the end of March was 3,400p, reflecting a 22% discount to net asset value.
Shares in the investment trust closed up 0.6% at 2,695.00 pence on Tuesday in London.
"Many of our businesses face serious issues as a consequence of the Coronavirus outbreak. It is no consolation that the evident real risk that this disease represents highlights the irrelevance of the former governance requirement to describe the Brexit risks to our business. Certainly the worst case scenario of more frequent global pandemics goes some way to explain the all-time low bond yields. These rates will probably rise when the global moves towards massive fiscal stimulus ceases to be primarily financed by central banks," said Chair Peregrine Moncreiffe.
"The largest economic contractionary impact is likely to be felt during the containment and delay stages of the global strategy to combat the virus. Once we move into the mitigate phase, there should be some return to some normalcy and economic growth with the restoration of supply chains and consumer demand. Even if effective vaccines take time to develop, the clarification that there are a number of potential treatments will help to alleviate public alarm during the mitigation phase," Moncreiffe added.
By Dayo Laniyan; [email protected]
Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
North Atl.smlr