LONDON (Alliance News) - Atlantis Japan Growth Fund Ltd on Friday said it underperformed its benchmark in the first half of its current financial year following a fall in net asset value.
NAV per share in the six months to the end of October declined 16% to USD2.81 from USD3.33 reported at the end of April.
The stock was trading 1.0% higher on the day Friday at 202.00 pence a share.
The trust's NAV total return per share was negative 9.0%. In comparison, the company's benchmark, the TOPIX Total Return index in Sterling terms, returned negative 2.5%.
The return to shareholders per share in sterling terms was negative 11%.
Atlantis Japan Growth Fund said the weak performance resulted from the considerable headwinds affecting global financial markets across most asset classes. These include rising US interest rates, decelerating economic growth expectations in Asia and Europe, and corporate earnings uncertainty due to increased US-China trade tensions and implementation of tariffs since early 2018.
"The first half of the current financial year ended October 31 has been somewhat more challenging compared to the preceding financial period," said Chairman Noel Lamb.
"With a simplification of the company's structure, an increase in the market capitalisation and the strong performance of the company following Taeko Setaishi's succession, I remain confident that the company has a much brighter future, external factors notwithstanding," added Lamb.
Taeko Setaishi is a founder of Atlantis Investment Research Corp, which is the company's investment adviser.