IN BRIEF: BlackRock Throgmorton underperforms benchmark in first half

BlackRock Throgmorton Trust PLC - London-based investment trust - In the half year ended May 31, net asset value per share falls to 672.58 pence, down from 921.91p at the end of November. For the period, its NAV per share return was negative 26%, underperforming its benchmark index's return of negative 9.4%. Dividends rise 4% year-on-year to 2.60p from 2.50p. Shares traded at a 5.6% discount to NAV at the period end, as opposed to a premium of 1.2% six months before.

The firm explains: "The past six months have been particularly challenging to navigate for the company, with our manager’s growth style firmly out of favour as investors rushed from strongly performing growth companies into energy stocks, lower growth value and defensives.

"Against this challenging economic backdrop, our portfolio manager remains optimistic about the longer term prospects for the companies within our portfolio, and for the asset class more broadly given the historic longer-term outperformance of UK smaller companies over their larger counterparts. In addition, he believes that the market is presently expressing an overly pessimistic view of the outlook for the asset class, as reflected in current UK Small and Mid-Cap valuations."

Current stock price: 590.00p

12-month change: down 36%

By Elizabeth Winter; elizabethwinter@alliancenews.com

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