Another strong performance from its for its tech-dominated portfolio fired the value of Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC (LON:SMT) higher in its latest half year.
The trust has been a star performer in the sector and underlined this with another impressive set of half-year numbers.
READ: Scottish Mortgage becoming the 'long-term savings vehicle of choice' believes Jefferies
Net asset value rose net asset by 17.5% to 420.2p while its share price climbed by 15%. The FTSE All-World Index rose 1% in sterling terms over the same period.
Scottish Mortgage’s portfolio is dominated by tech giants, with Amazon accounting for 7.7% of the portfolio, Tesla 6.8%, Alibaba 6.4% Baidu 5.3% and Alphabet (Google) 3.4%.
The trust also has a sizeable portfolio of non-quoted business and highlighted the performance of Spotify.
Heathcare in focus
Going forward, the trust believes healthcare is on the cusp of a ‘step change’ through the development of personalised diagnostics and therapeutics.
Biotech equipment firm Illumina was the best contributor to the first half performance.
Total returns over the past five years, which the company says is a better benchmark to measure its performance, amount to just under 223%.
The interim dividend was held at of 1.39p, which is unchanged from the same period last year.
Because of the importance of its non-listed and non-dividend paying investments, SMIT has pondered reducing its dividend as it is not covered by income but said at present it is committed to this level of payout even if not covered by earnings.
That position will be reviewed again at the full year.
At the half year, the portfolio was worth £6.37bn in total.