WEBINAR: Global Portfolio June 2018 – Annualised return back to 35%; goodbye MetroBank, hello Adobe

LONDON — This has been an active month for the Biznews Global Share portfolio, with a sharp deterioration in the value of the Rand boosting the SA-based annualised return to an annualised 35% since the portfolio's formation in December 2014. There was also a significant adjustment in the month. We appreciate that the only constant in this world is change – so we're conscious that one of our favourites might fall from grace. This has happened five times in the past three and a half years as we've exited Novo Nordisk, Barclays, IBM, Tesla and Facebook. Mindful that another candidate could emerge anytime, I've been keeping an eye on Adobe, Netflix and Twitter as our three most likely candidates. Today we pulled the trigger on Metro Bank in the wake of a fresh scandal, selling out of an investment that has been a laggard. We selected Adobe to replace it and purchased the first of three tranches today. – Alec Hogg

Features of the past month:

A good month for the share prices of Amazon and Alphabet, which between them account for 40% of the portfolio, ensured a healthy uplift from $358k to $360k in the total portfolio, despite some notable price declines elsewhere. Chinese companies Tencent and Alibaba came under pressure as Donald Trump cranked up the rhetoric around his proposed trade war, and Apple also eased because of its exposure to the Middle Kingdom. All emerging market currencies suffered in the wake of heightened tension, including the Rand, which fell from R12.45 against the US Dollar to R13.68. The Rand was also impacted by concerns over implications of the ANC's stated approach towards Expropriation without Compensation of land. As the portfolio is a pure Rand-hedge, the currency's decline has a very positive impact on its value for South African investors, lifting the total from R4.5m to R4.75m.

___STEADY_PAYWALL___