This year has been characterised by two major sources of uncertainty: a global pandemic and a bitterly contested U.S. election.   Earlier this month, the announcement by Pfizer, BioNTech and AstraZeneca of positive vaccine testing results, combined with a Democrats win in the election helped drive up the growth segment of the market and provide the value stocks with renewed impetus which resulted in a 10.8% increase in the S&P 500 Index.  News of a vaccine was particularly well received in European markets given the impact the virus has had on some countries with the CAC up 20.1%, the Euro Stoxx up 18.1%, the DAX up 15.0% and the MSCI World Index up by 13.7% during the month. AstraZeneca has subsequently announced that it is likely to run an additional vaccine trial after acknowledging a manufacturing error in its recent late-stage study.

Announcements that the UK economy had rebounded sharply during the September quarter were reflected in the value of the pound as compared to the US$ which increased by 2.8% in November and the stock market, where the FTSE 250 Index increased by 12.3%.  The small cap stocks performed better than large cap stocks with the Small Cap Index increasing by 14.9% as compared to the FTSE 100 Index which only increased by 12.4%.  The AIM All Share Index increased by 10.8%, while the Fledgling Index increased by 13.6% during the month.

During the past month our growth-oriented portfolio was a casualty of a large, sector rotation where investors were searching for stocks that have underperformed over the past six months.  As a result, our portfolio increased by 4.4%, giving up some of the impressive out-performance generated over the past twelve months and after allowing for expenses, the NAV increased by 4.1%.  We sold our holding in Hill & Smith and added to our holdings in Fevertree Drinks, Lok ‘n Store, Yougov and Abcam.  Cash comprised 3.6% of the portfolio at month end.