(Alliance News) - Keystone Investment Trust PLC said Thursday it lagged behind its benchmark index for the first half of its financial year, as the Covid-19 pandemic led to the sharp fall in markets, affecting the trust's portfolio.
For the six months to the end of March, Keystone reported a net asset value negative of 29.0%, compared the FTSE All-Share Index, which recorded a negative return of 22.0%.
Net asset value per share as at March 31 was 257.7 pence, down from 372.5p at the end of September.
Net asset value at the end of September was restated following the sub-division of each shares into five new ones in mid-February.
The trust's share price at the end of March was 219.0 pence, reflecting a 19% discount to net asset value.
Shares in Keystone Investment Trust closed 0.4% lower at 245.50 pence on Thursday in London.
The trust said that the first three months of the period was dominated by the UK General Election, with the result being a major Conservative victory dispelling a lot of the market uncertainty being built up in 2019.
However, Covid-19 dominated the markets in the second three months period. At first in January, the markets only moved to price in the disruption to supply chains in several sectors, however from late February, economic activity sharply deteriorated as cases in several Western countries spiked.
Portfolio-wise, gold stocks stood amongst the top performers as uncertainty around the pandemic allowed the safe haven asset to rise in price. On the other hand, sectors such as travel, leisure and fashion retail dropped due to restrictions imposed on trading.
Keystone Investment declared an interim dividend of 4.8 pence, in line with the year before.
"At the time of writing, economies and markets are in the grip of perhaps the greatest global crisis since the late 1920s. Alongside the human tragedy of Covid-19, the government response to the virus has been to shut down swathes of the global economy and we therefore face an economic as well as a health emergency," said Investment Manager James Goldstone.
"The duration of restrictions on people's movement, and therefore on economic activity around the world, is unknown and as a result there is a huge amount of economic and financial market uncertainty," Goldstone added.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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