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(Alliance News) - Diverse Income Trust PLC on Thursday reported a solid performance for the first half of its financial year, as stocks in its portfolio rose on pandemic recovery hopes following continued vaccine news.
For the six months to the end of November, the trust's net asset value total return came up to 11.7%. This reflected an outperformance over the FTSE All-Share Index, which gained 6.9%, but fell short of the FTSE SmallCap Index, excluding investment companies, which returned 24.6%, and a 20.5% total return from the FTSE AIM All-Share index.
As at November 30, net asset value per share increased by 2.0% to 97.10 pence from 95.23p the same date the year before.
Diverse Income's share price was 91.00p, reflecting a 6.3% discount to NAV.
Shares in Diverse Income Trust were up 0.2% on 104.65 pence on Thursday in London, having increased % since the period-end.
Diverse Income said the main contributors to the trust's performance were rising share prices in financial services firm CMC Markets PLC, electronics retailer AO World PLC and Gibraltar-based gambling firm 888 Holdings PLC, as their businesses continued to thrive despite the global recession.
Diverse Income declared a second interim dividend of 0.90 pence per share, in line with the year before.
"2020 was a year when humanity as the globe's dominant species was humbled by one of its smallest. It was also a year when scientific minds were able to devise multiple effective vaccines for the coronavirus in less than a tenth of the usual time. This cannot erase the human, often irreversible, effects of the Covid-19 pandemic but it helps to reinforce an optimistic view of mankind’s ability to overcome setbacks and create a better future for succeeding generations," said Chair Andrew Bell.
"Investment success in the stock market is ultimately rooted in finding companies that do things useful to others better than their competitors do. In a changing world, that is a key driver of active investment management," Bell added.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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