Diverse Income Trust plc (LON:DIVI) has announced that its Factsheet for the month ended 31 August 2024 is now available.
Manager Commentary
August is traditionally considered quiet, because many staff are on holiday and trading within stock markets is often somewhat lower than usual. This year however, even towards the end of July, global economic data had been more mixed than expected. This led to investors being somewhat anxious at the start of August, so when some unexpectedly weak employment data was published in the US, company share prices suddenly became very volatile. Numerous investors feared that the Japanese currency had become too weak, however with many seeking to buy Japanese Yen, the currency has staged a remarkably rapid recovery. Whilst there were all sorts of other gyrations in many other global stock markets at the time, in general most of these abrupt movements have been largely corrected subsequently.
Within the UK stock market, the mainstream and small company indices, such as the FTSE 100 Index and the FTSE Small Cap Index, dropped significantly in early August, followed by a subsequent recovery into the end of the month. When stock markets are volatile, it is usual for UK listed companies that pay an income (equity income stocks) to be more resilient. Hence, whilst the NAV of the Diverse Income Trust did decline early in August, generally the results from the trust’s holdings have continued as expected.
Furthermore, on a company specific level, Intercede announced some major contract wins, I3 Energy agreed to a takeover at a 49% premium to i3 Energy’s closing price on the same date (16.08.24). and Plus
500 has been trading ahead of expectations. Over the month as whole, the Trust’s NAV has risen.
Gervais Williams & Martin Turner
31.08.2024
