Update No. 173 – 25/07/14

I was determined to write something with a bit more detail this week, given how sparse the updates have been of late.

I had a really good idea for a blogpost around Tuesday or Wednesday, but didn’t note it down & when I sat down at the keyboard tonight, it was gone.

In the last few weeks I have been glad I am not a finance journalist (with my horrid prose and disjointed style, most finance readers are probably also glad…). It would be a real challenge writing something useful about the general markets currently. Plenty going on in the world news wise, just not much earth-shattering business news.

US reporting season has commenced and with nearly half reported, around three-quarters of earnings were better than consensus, the S&P500 has hit 26 new all-time highs this year, earnings season does seem to basically justify this optimism and trend. US jobless claims are at their lowest level since February 2006, but the US housing starts figures have fallen sharply, and permits (future housing starts) are running below starts, indicating starts should remain weak for some time. I maintain that if housing starts return to their ‘replacement’ level, you will really see the US economy run, that would require about 50 – 60% uplift in home construction.

I am looking forward to the start of Australian reporting season next week, so I can get down to the real business of analysing the performance of companies we own or are following. Unfortunately, as most of our holdings are small-caps, they tend to report in the last week of August, so the first three weeks of reporting season are mostly of academic interest to EGP.

In the meantime, the benchmark hit a new all-time high, EGP followed with a fresh all-time high, I suspect by the time we announce the portfolio metrics in early September, we will find despite fairly sound performance in EGP (over the 6 months since the metrics were last reported) that our portfolio has become ‘cheaper’ based on these metrics, hopefully this bodes well for continued good performance  – Tony Hansen 25/07/2014

 

Apr 1st 2011

Jul 1st 2014

Current Price

Current Period

Since Inception

EGP Fund No. 1

1.00000

1.56145

 1.60078*1

2.52%

74.62%*2

S&PASX200TR

35632.05

45991.23

47594.59

3.49%

33.57%

EGP Fund No. 1 Pty Ltd. Up by 2.52%, trailing the benchmark by 0.97% since July 1st. Since inception, EGP Fund No. 1 Pty Ltd is Up by 74.62%, leading the benchmark by 41.05% all-time (April 1st 2011).

*1 after 31May 2013 dividend of 2.333 cents per share plus 1.000 cent per share Franking Credit & 31 May 2014 Dividend of 7.000 cents per share plus 3.000 cent per share Franking Credit

*2 calculated based on dividends reinvested