THE £1.6 billion Monks Investment Trust outperformed the FTSE World Index significantly in its first half, amid strong showings from Chinese online retailer Alibaba, Californian semiconductor company NVIDIA, and South African internet and entertainment group Naspers.
Monks, run by Edinburgh-based partnership Baillie Gifford, yesterday posted a 13.6 per cent return on net asset value for the six months to October 31. The FTSE World Index, in sterling terms, recorded a total return of 7.3 per cent over the same period.
The investment trust highlighted “an improving global economy”. It said it was “pleasing to see a diverse range of our largest holdings announcing strong trading results”.
Monks noted cruise holiday company Royal Caribbean, Alibaba, semiconductor companies Samsung Electronics, NVIDIA and Teradyne, and social media group Facebook had all reported earnings per share which were up by more than 50 per cent year-on-year in the January to June period.
The trust noted, since April 2015, its exposure to emerging market companies had risen from 13.7 per cent to 21.4 per cent of total assets.
Only 6.1 per cent of total assets were invested in UK companies at October 31.
The trust said strong progress in online platforms and semiconductor companies had led to positions being trimmed in the likes of Amazon, MercardoLibre, Yandex, and Autohome, in the former category, and NVIDIA and Teradyne in the latter.
It added that, in the case of the semiconductor reductions, some of the profits were recycled into new holdings in two competitor companies, Advanced Micro Devices and Advantest, “which seem at an earlier stage of progress towards much higher levels of profitability”.
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