Questor went international in 2016. How have our overseas tips performed?
We examine the 16 foreign shares tipped so far to see if they have benefited this column’s overall performance
BUY British? Not when it comes to stocks, it seems.
We exaggerate: many of our domestic picks have produced handsome returns. But Questor’s overseas stock selections have on average benefited from the rising strength of foreign currencies since we started to give the column an international flavour in late 2016.
Analysis of the 16 foreign shares so far chosen shows that they have gained 12.7pc on average if we disregard currency movements and 15.5pc when we take exchange rates into account. This latter figure represents the actual gain for sterling investors, who have therefore made an extra 2.8 percentage points by buying our overseas stocks.
For comparison, the FTSE 100 has risen by an average of about 9pc since the date
of the tips concerned.
Our overseas winners
Questor’s best foreign stock so far has been Mercadolibre, the “Amazon of South America”. Its shares, listed on Nasdaq in New York and quoted in dollars, have risen by 54.2pc in that currency and by 56pc for a sterling investor. Close behind is Phillips 66, the oil company we tipped in October 2016 on the basis of Warren Buffett’s large holding. It has gained 49.7pc in dollars or 44.5pc in pounds.
We have also tipped European shares and Novo Nordisk, the Danishlisted insulin maker, has delivered strong returns for readers: a 37.9pc rise in local currency (Danish krone) terms and 42.5pc for sterling investors since our tip in November 2016. Shares in Netapp, the software services group that, we argued, the market was mistaking for a hardware supplier, have risen by 36.8pc since our tip in April, or by 51.4pc for British investors, whose pounds would have bought a healthy $1.41 each at the time.
In March we said readers who bought shares in Us-listed Abercrombie &
Fitch had the potential to double their money as the clothing chain recovered from its self-inflicted wounds. There’s still a long way to go but the share price has risen by 24.1pc in dollar terms since then, or by 36.7pc in sterling (we bought when £1 equalled $1.40).
Chevron became our second overseas-listed oil stock when we recommended it in February last year. It has since gained 9.8pc in dollars and 7.9pc in pounds. We rated it a better
bet than Britain’s BP, which we kept at “hold”; that was a mistake, as the latter’s shares have gained 21.5pc.
Shares in Adobe, the software firm, have risen by 9.7pc in dollars and 17pc in pounds since our tip in May. We bought them when we sold Electronic
Arts, the computer games firm, whose shares had risen by 7pc in dollar terms and 3.7pc in sterling. New Residential Investment Corporation is the only overseas holding in Questor’s Income Portfolio. Shares in the firm, which owns valuable rights to process mortgage payments, have risen by 7.3pc in local terms but by just 3.6pc for British investors, because we bought at a time of particular sterling weakness.
Given that Google’s parent Alphabet is one of the much-vaunted “Faang” technology stocks the 6pc rise in its shares since we tipped them in January looks rather pedestrian, although the 18pc gain for sterling investors is more impressive. It’s too soon to expect much from Manchester United, tipped on Sunday; the shares have gained 2pc.
Our overseas losers
Five of our selections have lost money and it’s interesting to note that none of those losses has been overturned by currency movements: all five have fallen in both sterling and local currency terms (likewise, all our winners gained in both respects). The worst performer has been
Sociedad Quimica y Minera, a Chilean lithium miner. Its shares, listed in New York, have fallen by 16.4pc since our tip in February. The loss for sterling investors is 8.7pc. We tipped Intesa
Sanpaolo, the Italian bank, only last month but already it has lost 11.1pc, or 10.3pc for British investors. Fears over Turkey, although its exposure is very limited, may be partly to blame.
ISS, the Danish outsourcer tipped in January, has fallen by 5.1pc in kroner or 4.8pc in pounds. Amerisourcebergen, the US drugs distributor recommended in March 2016, has lost 4.4pc, or 8.6pc in sterling. Icade, the French property group tipped a month ago, has slipped by 3.5pc or 3.2pc in sterling.
Mercadolibre 56pc Gain in the online retailer’s shares for British investors since our tip