Yet another see-saw month. Another boost for equities, this time from central banks. Some good employment news from the USA, has temporarily reversed market gloom, but everyone knows that the fundamental Eurozone problems remain and are not being addressed. In addition, recent news from China has been downbeat. How long can the markets remain irrational? A long time probably.
On the month, Sterling rose from €1.1394 to €1.1644 but fell from $1.6130 to $1.5598, reflecting once again its piggy in the middle status. UK 10 year gilt redemption yields fell from 2.55% to 2.15%, some good news for the Treasury. Gold climbed a bit more to $1747 per ounce. Brent Crude future barely moved from $110.05 to $110.10 per barrel, while copper fell back slightly from $8000 to $7905 per tonne. The Baltic Dry Index fell from 2013 to 1862. Overall, the FTSE100 fell from 5702.24 to 5552.29 and the FTSE250 from 10773.07 to 10307.32, but this featured strong recent recoveries from mid-month lows.
Equity Portfolio (-11.55% on year, FTSE all share -6.74%)
Oh dear, my equities trend is not looking good and I am seriously underperforming the FTSE all share, owing, no doubt to my Bad Portfolio as outlined in my last post. I'll just have to take this on the chin, of course, but I can take some comfort from the fact that I do have a brace of good dividend shares as well. Barring a widespread full year profits collapse, entirely possible but not, as yet, likely, these should hold up.
Although I have cash to spend and would very much like to spend it, I have resisted all temptation this month. There are shares I would like buy or buy more of , such as some of the defensives (e.g. Diageo, National Grid, Tesco, Unilever), but I feel they are just too pricey. Equally, there are others I would not mind acquiring more of, such as some of the insurers, but the yields look simply too attractive and I fear having more exposure to Eurozone chaos in that sector.
At present, I need that circa 5000 FTSE100 buying signal to be tempted.
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