Find out more about Alliance Trust’s performance, with the help of market commentary from our Investment Manager.
For the month of August, the Trust’s total shareholder return and NAV total return were -4.2% and -3.3% respectively, with the benchmark MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) returning -1.8%.
Throughout August global markets proved to be volatile, with the start of the month seeing an unexpected escalation of trade tensions between the US and China weighing on US and Asian equities, whilst second quarter GDP releases confirmed a slowdown in economic growth in Europe.
Within the Trust’s portfolio, one of the top contributors to return was German pharmaceuticals company Bayer, which posted strong returns following a positive market response to its disposal of its stake in chemical plant operator Currenta at a better-than-expected price. Amongst the detractors was Irish banking group AIB, whose share price suffered in August due to increased fears of a “no deal” Brexit and the potential consequences for the Irish banking sector.
Finally, this month we added a ninth stock picker to the Trust’s line up, funding his allocation from the existing managers. More information on Vulcan Value Partners and what differentiates its approach can be found on https://www.alliancetrust.co.uk/managers.
Alliance Trust has been awarded the AIC’s Dividend Hero award and is proud to have increased its dividend every year for over 50 years. This award is made by the Association of Investment Companies to the small number of investment companies who have increased their dividends each year for 20 years or more. For more information and a full list of qualifying companies, you can visit the AIC website.
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