It has been a while since I updated on my holdings. Since I last appraised, I’ve regained access to my shares which were being held by ITI Capital, which is a big relief as that’s a solid five-figure sum of money that was not available to me for over 15 months. However, just as I got that back I’ve decided to buy a property, in London, so I’ve had to raid my investments to cover that cost. That means there’s been quite a bit of change to my portfolio.
This is what my investments look like now
| Company | EPIC | No of shares | Share price at time of writing (in pence) |
| Merchants Trust | MRCH | 1,216 | 436 |
| AstraZeneca | AZN | 70 | 7,504 |
| Persimmon | PSN | 192 | 2,553 |
| Legal & General | LGEN | 1,757 | 244 |
| National Grid | NG. | 363 | 850 |
| Marlborough UK Micro Cap Growth | N/A | 5.052 | 1,008 |
| Lindsell Train Global Equity | N/A | 17.295 | 232 |
| HSBC FTSE All World Index (ETF) | N/A | 1,658 | 212 |
| Polar Capital Holdings | POLR | 409 | 648 |
| Reckitt Benckiser | RB | 41 | 6,182 |
| Murray International Trust | MYI | 222 | 1,080 |
| Diageo | DGE | 75 | 2,941 |
| HSBC ETFs S&P 500 (ETF) | HSPX | 77 | 2,744 |
| Scottish Investment Trust | SCIN | 205 | 702 |
| Artemis Global Growth | N/A | 398 | 320 |
| Brunner Investment Trust | BUT | 232 | 844 |
Note these aren’t listed in any particular order. Although the chart shows the breakdown of the portfolio, with figures rounded to the nearest whole percentage.
Changes in January 2021
In January 2021 I sold off my holding in Lloyds Banking Group and Intermediate Capital Group. Both were sold on the 11th. The former was sold because of its poor performance, a lot of negative sentiment towards UK banks and I’d already sold most of my holding so it freed up some cash. Intermediate Capital was sold because it had had a very good run and was originally bought as an income share. Gains were about 80% over quite a short timeframe. That pushed down the yield and I decide to bank the gains.
I added more Polar Capital Holdings on the same day as I sold off the other two shares. It’s not had the strongest month given the market has fallen for most of January and it’s an asset manager so quite closely correlated to the wider market. Longer-term, I expect it’ll do well and for me it combines income and growth potential. I remain very confident in the group’s prospects.
At the end of the month, on the 29th, I added Brunner Investment Trust after reading in Shares Magazine that the discount had widened. The shares were bought for 861p. This is the result of a sell off by Aviva Global Investors but overall the trust has low gearing, reasonable charges and a strong portfolio of companies I think. The top holding is Microsoft. I imagine I’ll hold these shares for a few years unless the discount narrows very quickly and I can get out with a reasonable gain – probably at least 20%. I bought these shares quite impulsively after treading the article – an aspect of my investing I need to work on.
What next?
I’ll carry on with my plans for 2021. This means as a starting point, adding as cash at least 33% of my net earnings into my ISA each month. On top of that, I’m likely to add some funds, trackers and investment trusts that give me exposure to shares from beyond the UK. I’m particularly keen on US Smaller Companies, Asia and those that can provide a higher dividend yield.
So I’ll build on the four investment trusts I already have while continuing to research individual companies and update my watchlist. I expect new investments will be favouring Covid recovery opportunities, growth at a reasonable price and some more speculative (but well researched) AIM stocks.
When it comes to my current holdings I’ll be auditing them versus shares on the watchlist and replacing any that aren’t up to scratch. For now though I think most have decent prospects and the cyclical ones, like Persimmon and Legal & General, could do particularly well if the economy opens back up and recovers strongly. It would likely be after a strong rise that I’d be more tempted to sell them, to be replaced by smaller companies.
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You can also read my article on my investing and finance plans for this year on this blog as well.
The Income Investor 