LONDON (Alliance News) - F&C Capital & Income Investment Trust PLC on Friday lifted its dividend after outperforming its benchmark in its financial first half.
Net asset value per share rose to 309.75 pence in the six months to the end of March from 303.47p a year earlier. The company said during the period its shares traded at an average premium of 2.3% to NAV. The stock was up 0.7% on the day Friday at 344.41p per share.
NAV total return was negative 0.5%, but still outperformed the trust's benchmark, the FTSE All-Share Index, which returned a negative 2.3%. Share price total return was also negative, at 0.1%.
The company declared two interim dividends of 2.45p, bringing the total interim dividend to 4.90p, up 2.1% from 4.80p paid the year before.
"The company's track record remains strongly positive," said Chairman Steven Bates. "We are ahead of the Index benchmark over three, five and ten years and our intention is to extend our record of 24 consecutive years of dividend growth."