Year to date, the pullback has now recorded -8.21% for the FTSE and -6.27% for my portfolio with more global political disruption to come from international trade wars, and political sanctions amid further breakdowns in international relations and communications.
Just 3 shares in positive territory for the month, and those just recovery bounces: National Grid at 8.35%, SSE at 4.16%, and BP at 0.81% (yes, I'm taking 0.81%!).
But, in the year to date, not taking dividends into account (not that they would make a difference), every holding in my portfolio is down.
Dividends have contributed a positive 0.77% in the first quarter though, but going back to my opening line, not enough to turn the tide of market sentiment.
March dividends came in from SSE, Berkeley, Royal Dutch Shell, Imperial Brands and BP.
I held back on my musings to bring in Direct Line for Vodafone (Musings: Vodafone and Direct Line.), ahead of Direct Line's ex dividend date but thats not to say that I am not still considering changes.
Anyway with a number of holdings continuing to fall, I again made small additions to Imperial Brands and National Grid.
Galliford Try officially launched their cash call and the nil paid rights are currently sat in my portfolio and I expect the new shares to be showing in April's update.
My forward yield forecast now sits quite high at around 5.39%. I think that normally, I would only see that kind of figure when constructing a new portfolio so it remains to be seen if the forecasts are cut with the general pessimism that now permeates markets.
On the plus side, when markets are pessimistic its generally the best time to be buying and there are candidates in my portfolio and outside that I will continue to be interested in topping up or adding. As ever, in times like this the problem is having the funds available for all these opportunities which probably makes it a good time for those new investors with the right preparation, to start investing to build a portfolio of solid shares with solid yield records that will run along nicely for a number of years.
Worth noting as well that, with sterling recovering, there are long term targets amongst US shares that I wouldn't mind adding.
| Merchant Adventurer's Index | |||||||||
| Forecast | 1 month | YTD | All time | ||||||
| Price | % holding | Div. yield | % gain | % gain | % gain | ||||
| Lloyds | 65.00p | 27.87% | 5.89% | -5.52% | -4.50% | 5.27% | |||
| Aviva | 496.00p | 13.56% | 5.88% | -1.90% | -2.07% | 38.67% | |||
| Berkeley Group | 3789.00p | 11.65% | 4.75% | -1.69% | -9.72% | 61.53% | |||
| National Grid | 802.00p | 12.46% | 5.68% | 8.35% | -8.11% | 71.44% | |||
| BP | 479.00p | 11.26% | 6.03% | 0.81% | -8.36% | 15.13% | |||
| Apple ** | $167.78 | 9.44% | 1.37% | -6.61% | -4.46% | 312.53% | |||
| BAT | 4131.00p | 2.96% | 4.92% | -3.83% | -17.68% | 23.16% | |||
| Imperial Brands | 2426.00p | 2.88% | 7.76% | -7.37% | -27.68% | 5.37% | |||
| Royal Dutch Shell | 2277.00p | 2.66% | 5.92% | -1.90% | -9.23% | -11.54% | |||
| Vodafone | 194.00p | 2.00% | 6.81% | -4.79% | -17.45% | -23.11% | |||
| SSE | 1276.00p | 1.33% | 7.18% | 4.16% | -3.33% | 10.87% | |||
| Galliford Try | 835.00p | 1.18% | 10.75% | -9.04% | -2.02% | -2.02% | |||
| Nil paid rights | 267.00p | 0.13% | |||||||
| Cash | 0.63% | 0.00% | |||||||
| 100.00% | 5.39% | ||||||||
| 1 month | YTD | All time | |||||||
| Virtual Portfolio gain (incl. Dividends) | |||||||||
| - 1 month gain 2462.37 | 2422.18 | -1.63% | |||||||
| - YTD gain 2583.68 | 2422.18 | -6.27% | |||||||
| - 99 month gain 1000.00 | 2422.18 | 142.22% | |||||||
| Unit Price - £ | 2.42218 | (Starting price - £1) | |||||||
| FTSE gain (excl. Dividends) | |||||||||
| - 1 month gain 7231.90 | 7056.60 | -2.42% | |||||||
| - YTD gain 7687.80 | 7056.60 | -8.21% | |||||||
| - 99 month gain 5412.88 | 7056.60 | 30.37% | |||||||
| Transactions: | |||||||||
| 16/03/2018 | Div | SSE @ 28.4p per share | |||||||
| 22/03/2018 | Buy | Imp.Brands @ 2349.75p per share | |||||||
| 22/03/2018 | Buy | National Grid @ 761.62p per share | |||||||
| 23/03/2018 | Div | Berkeley @ 85.24p per share | |||||||
| 26/03/2018 | Div | RDSB @ 33.91p per share | |||||||
| 28/03/2018 | Nil Paid | Galliford Try @ 297p per share | |||||||
| 31/03/2018 | Div | Imp.Brands @ 61.53p per share | |||||||
| 31/03/2018 | Div | BP @ 7.17p per share | |||||||
| Notes: | |||||||||
| * US Dividends are adjusted for exchange rate and 15% withholding tax | |||||||||
| ** Sterling : Dollar exchange rate = £1: $1.40137 as at 31/03/18 | |||||||||
| *** Sterling : Euro exchange rate = £1: $1.13711 as at 31/03/18 | |||||||||
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| Click to enlarge, close to return. |
