(Alliance News) - JPMorgan Elect PLC on Wednesday reported a drop in assets for all three of its share classes, but saw them outperform their benchmarks.
JPMorgan Elect has three share classes: Managed Growth, Managed Income and Managed Cash.
At February 29, JPMorgan Elect's Managed Growth NAV per share stood at 827.0p compared to 863.8p at August 31, a 4.3% decrease.
In the six months ended February 29, the Managed Growth share class - which is focused on long-term capital growth - delivered a negative 3.6% total return on net assets, compared to its benchmark losing 4.5%.
The Managed Growth share class declared two interim dividends, totalling 8.95p compared to 7.56p a year earlier, an 18% increase.
Assessing the Managed Growth portfolio's performance in the first half, investment managers Katy Thorneycroft, Simin Li and Peter Malonesaid said: "Over the six month period the portfolio outperformed its benchmark in what was a mixed period for markets. Against this backdrop, seven out of the ten largest holdings outperformed their respective benchmarks which was the key driver of the Managed Growth Portfolio's outperformance. Within the portfolio, the US was the worst performing region, followed by the UK. However, returns cross all regions were negative or flat over the review period."
In the same period, JPMorgan Elect's Managed Income share class delivered a negative 2.9% total return, outperforming its benchmark - which shed 5.5%.
At February 28, the trust's Managed Income NAV per share stood at 99.2p compared to 104.4p at August 31, a 5.0% decrease.
The Managed Income share class declared an interim dividend of 2.20p per share, unchanged on the year before.
The Managed Income managers John Baker and Katen Patel said: "Our holdings in Games Workshop, Taylor Wimpey, Dunelm and One Savings Bank were the biggest contributors to the portfolio's relative performance. These companies earn a large proportion of their revenues from the UK and benefited from an improvement in economic sentiment following the agreement to enter a transitional period with the EU and the decisive victory by the Conservative Party in the General Election. On the other hand detractors from performance included Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Cineworld. The oil price began to weaken in February as Chinese economic activity was hit by the lock down of Wuhan due to Covid-19. This hit the share price of the oil companies. Signs that the virus was beginning to spread in Western Europe and North American caused a late February sell off in the shares of Cineworld which operates cinemas".
The trust's Managed Cash share class posted a flat return in the first half.
At February 28, the trust's Managed Cash NAV per share stood at 103.3p compared to 103.7p at August 31, a 0.4% increase.
During the six-month period, the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee kept the base rate at 0.75%, the level it had been reduced to in August 2018 from 0.5%. As of May 12, the base rate is 0.10% after the BoE cut rates by 0.5% on March 11 and by a further 0.15% on March 19, to address the Covid-19 crisis and the wave of associated mass job layoffs.
JPMorgan Elect said it "moved quickly to reduce risk" in February, reducing its exposure to lower rated BBB securities. The trust noted its retained its high average rating of AA-.
Shares in Managed Growth were up 0.4% Wednesday at 743.08p, Managed Income was trading down 3.6% at 81.00p and Managed Cash was untraded but last closed at 105.00p.
By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
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