Shares Portfolio Update

Its been a little while since I last updated on the individual shares portfolio so perhaps the end of the 1st quarter may be a good opportunity to bring things up to date.

I mentioned in the last update in November, there had been a few portfolio sales. The proceeds of all these sales amounted to £9,838 after sale costs. In addition there is the proceeds from the takeover of Abbey Protection of £1,610 received in early January, making a combined total of  £11,448.

Subsequently there have been 6 new additions - Sage Group, Next, Centrica, easyJet, Plastics Capital and a badly timed re-purchase of Dialight. Sage, Next, easyJet and Plastic Capital have got off to a great start with current share price gains of 15%, 35%, 22% and 5% respectively plus dividends. Dialight was sold at a loss following yet a further profits warning. Centrica  has lost a little ground since purchase- I probably was a little too impatient with the purchase but as a whole, I think the additions are still in the black.

The total acquisition costs including dealing fees and stamp duty amounts to £10,591 leaving a surplus of £857 (11,448 - 10,591).

Since the turn of the New Year I have sold Dialight - loss £230 and more recently Carillion - net proceeds £1,687 followed by a purchase of 110 IMI @ 1420p - total cost £1,580. This provides a deficit of -£123 (1,687  -1,580  -230)

Therefore there is currently a net surplus of £734 (857 - 123) - this sum together with last years dividends of £996 will be used to cover my recent purchase of Legal & General - 800 shares @ 206p total cost £1,666 including dealing charges and stamp duty (this addition has not yet been added to the portfolio table  below).

I think one of the main factor negatively affecting returns in the past few months has been the share price decline of my two supermarkets - Tesco has struggled to get back on track following its profit warning over 2 years back. SBRY had a set back following the announcement in January of the departure of its CEO Justin King. Both have come under pressure from the likes of Aldi and Lidl and recent results from Morrisons has not helped confidence in the sector.

At the close of business yesterday, the FTSE 100 was 6615 - up around 12% on January 2013.

Here’s the current portfolio

(click to enlarge)

As ever, slow & steady steps…..