The unaudited net asset value of Athelney Trust was 296.1p at 30 November 2021.
Fund Manager’s comment for November 2021
The Christmas holiday shopping season in the US got off to an early start following reports of struggling supply chains and low inventories with retail sales in October increasing by 1.7%, the largest gain since the last round of stimulus checks were deployed in March. In the UK, October retail sales were a little more subdued, rising by only 0.8%. Inflationary pressures continue to build led by higher electricity prices with the October CPI at 4.2% surprising on the upside.
In the U.K., PMIs were strong with manufacturing up to 58.2 while the services PMI declined a little to 58.6 in spite of an increase in new orders. Employment remains elevated as are cost and price pressures, especially in manufacturing. Overall, those figures would suggest that the economy is growing at a reasonably steady pace in the 4th quarter, which combined with other activity and price data has led some economists to forecast that the Bank of England is likely to raise its policy interest rate as early as December.
During the past month, the market value of our investments increased by 0.96% and, after paying expenses, the NAV per share increased by 0.68%. An excellent result when compared to a 2.46% decline in the FTSE 100 index and a 2.54% decline in the broader FTSE 250 index. The Fledgling Index declined by 1.80% while both the Small Cap Index and the AIM All-Share Index were down during the month by 2.10% and 2.91% respectively. The US market did not perform as badly with the broad S&P500 index only down by 0.83% whereas the other global markets assisted in dragging the MSCI down to end the month down by 2.30%
During the month we top sliced our position in Liontrust Asset Management and added to our positions in Fevertree Drinks, JD Sports and Treatt. The overall cash position increased during the month with cash on hand at the end of November comprising 3.8% of the portfolio value.
