Better second half for Diverse Income but annual result still lags All-Share – Over the year to the end of May 2018, Diverse Income Trust generated a return on NAV of 5.2%, a little less than the return on the All-Share Index of 6.5%. total dividends rose by 13.3% to 3.4p and there is also a special dividend of 0.23p.
The manager says “During the first half of the year, the company’s portfolio lagged the market rise, because growth stocks performed strongly and other stocks remained overlooked. In the second half of the year, the equity markets were more unsettled and, interestingly, microcaps have enjoyed a period of outperformance. In particular, many of the company’s holdings tended to perform
well in this period, and the company therefore outperformed.”
Strong contributors in the year included Zotefoams, K3 Capital and Burford Capital, helped by buoyant trading. There were disappointments at Accrol, where a position has currently been retained for recovery potential, and UP Global Sourcing, which has been exited. The largest detractor was the Put option as the value decayed over the period.
DIVI : Better second half for Diverse Income but annual result still lags All-Share