LONDON (Alliance News) - Aberdeen Latin American Income Fund Ltd Thursday said it underperformed as its benchmark experienced a double-digit drop in the first six months of the trust's financial year.
The trust, which invests in Latin American securities and targets a total return, said its net asset value total return in sterling terms fell by 19.1% in the six months ended February 28, while its benchmark was down 16.4%. NAV per share fell to 72.78p from 92.60p, while the share price fell to 65.25p from 82.75p.
The trust's shares were up 1.4% at 65.93 pence on Thursday afternoon.
The discount at which shares traded to net asset value narrowed to 10.3% from 10.6%.
The trust's benchmark is the Composite MSCI EM Latin American 10/40 Index/JP Morgan GBI-EM Global Diversified Index (Latin America carve out)(sterling adjusted).
"Latin American listed assets were buffeted by a confluence of headwinds over the six months to the end of February 2015. These included lower commodity prices, weakening currencies and slowing growth. Vacillating expectations surrounding the timing of a US interest rate hike also weighed on sentiment. The eventual tightening of US monetary policy would make dollar investments more attractive, and may spark further capital flight from the region," Chairman Richard Prosser said in a statement.
The chairman said that market sentiment is "unlikely to improve" in the short term but that there "still remains cause for optimism for the long-term".
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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