Personal Assets Trust - Half Year Results

I added this to my portfolio of investment trusts earlier this year - here’s a link to the post. Its investment policy is to protect and increase (in that order) the value of shareholders' funds per share over the long term.

Yesterday, they issued results for the half-year to 31st October 2013.

Over the six months period, NAV per share  fell by 4.9% to £334.75 compared to a rise of 5.8% in its comparator, the FTSE All-Share Index. PNL's share price fell by £20.40 to £336.60 over the same period, being a premium of 0.6% to the Company's NAV at that date.

6m Comparison PNL -v- FTSE All Share
(click to enlarge)

As the markets have risen quite a bit over the past year or so, I thought it would be a good plan to park some of the gains from a couple of share sales in a safe haven. I was not expecting a great share price surge from my holding but I must admit to being disappointed to be down around 3.5% since purchase.

 In my earlier post I said "I also like the concept of not losing money. I am reminded of legendary investor Warren Buffett’s investing rules - Rule 1, never lose money. Rule 2, Never forget Rule 1"  mmm….

Of course, four months is too soon to reach a judgment but I note from the report that the 3 year performance has not been too good  -  "Over the three years to 31 October 2013 the NAV rose by 10.5% compared to the FTSE All-Share Index's rise of 22.1%. This underperformance of 9.5% is equivalent to 3.3% per annum over the three year period".

I will be looking to see some signs of the share price making progress over the coming months.