How have our Aim-quoted shares fared since the general election?
Following updates last week on our wider stock tips, our investment trusts and income assets, we look at our IHT Portfolio
THE Aim-quoted stocks in Questor’s Inheritance Tax Portfolio have not missed out on the post-election bounce in London-listed shares.
Of the 24 stocks in the Aim portfolio on polling day (one has since left the stock market, as we report below), 19 have risen and just four have fallen since the market closed on Dec 12; one has stood still. The average change across the portfolio is a rise of 5.5pc.
The largest increase, of 20.7pc, has come from Brooks
Macdonald, the wealth manager. The fees it receives are based on the value of clients’ holdings, so a rise in the stock market automatically benefits the firm. The improvement in sentiment since the end of uncertainty over Brexit has probably done the rest.
Shares in Gamma Communications, which supplies telephone services to business customers, have risen by 15.4pc. It’s the kind of domestically focused company to have gained most from Britain’s newfound political stability. Dart Group, which owns the Jet2 airline, has gained 13.3pc since we went to the polls. Investors began to flock to the business when Thomas Cook collapsed in September; its share price has almost doubled since. Next comes boohoo. com, the online boutique, whose shares have gained 13.2pc since election day, followed by Tristel. Shares in the hospital disinfectant maker have risen by 11.8pc.
Shares in Kromek, whose advanced detectors help protect the public from terrorist threats, have risen by 11.1pc, despite the fact that many of its revenues come from overseas, depressing their value when converted to sterling. Oxford Metrics, whose hi-tech “motion capture” systems are used by
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Team17, another technology stock, has bounced by 10.1pc. The firm acts rather like a “record label” in the way it markets video games developed by individuals or other companies. The share price of Michelmersh, the brickmaker, has risen by 7.5pc since election day. Many of its sales come from the domestic market.
Imimobile, which helps businesses communicate with customers via text messages and the like, has experienced a 5.4pc gain, while Walker
Greenbank, the wallpaper company, has firmed by 5.2pc.
The other gainers all rose by less than 5pc. They were First Derivatives, Volex, Naked (formerly Majestic) Wines, Scapa, Randall & Quilter, Murgitroyd (see below), Craneware and Young & Co. Anpario, the animal feed supplements firm, is unmoved. The two biggest losses among our Inheritance Tax Portfolio’s holdings have both stemmed from poorly received announcements from the companies.
Nichols, the maker of Vimto soft drinks, told the market on Monday that new sales taxes in its markets in Saudi Arabia and the UAE could cause profits for 2020 to be “materially below current expectations”. The shares are now 5.2pc lower than at the close on polling day.
Fulcrum Utility Services, which lays gas pipelines and provides metering services, published interim results on the same day. It said sales and cash generation had fallen, by 21.4pc and 100pc respectively, while a pre-tax profit of £2.6m at the same stage last year had turned into a loss of £900,000. It also announced the sale of its domestic customer gas connection assets. The shares are 4pc below where they were on Dec 12.
Share in RWS, the patent translator, and Gama Aviation have fallen by less than 1pc.
Update: Murgitroyd
We have included Murgitroyd, the patent firm, in our summary because we held the shares on election day. But last week they lost their Aim quotation when the firm was sold to Sovereign Capital Partners, a private equity group, at 675p a share. Our gain since we added them to the portfolio at 485p in January last year is 39.2pc.