A good start in January. A correction in February. A recovery Another correction A bumpy ride in March.
Started writing this post in mid-March and have to change the above narrative after the past 2 weeks. Unlike the past 2 years, the market is more volatile this year. So how has this affected my performance?
Performance
The goal is to achieve at least 8% return with a stretched goal of 12% with STI ETF (ES3) as benchmark. For the past quarter, NAV increases from $5.39 (31 Dec 2017) to $5.44 (31 March 2018), providing a return of 1.0%. A much weaker start as compared to past 2 years but it’s still not task impossible yet.
The only consolation is that I have caught up with ES3 this month, which has also returned about 1.0% (inclusive of dividend). I am hopeful I will leapfrog it in the next quarter due to higher amount of dividend to be received.
Allocation
One of my key strategies to achieve my target is maintaining allocation of dividend to growth/value stocks at 60%-40%. You can read more about my strategies here. The tables below show the allocation for the quarter and their returns.
D – Dividend, R – REIT, G – Growth, P – Punt, T – Turnaround*, V – Value*
As seen, I have more or less kept to my allocation. The strong performance from the quarter comes from Dividend counters and largely from the two electronic counters UMS and Valuetronics which I have originally bought for dividend. Both have benefitted from the continued strong run in the electronic sector and I think they will continue to do well for the rest of the year. Good return from VICOM and Japan Foods for the quarter also help to prop up the number.
The drag in my performance is caused mainly by REIT which has been affected by the fear fo interest rate hike. Personally, I don’t think that the impact will be too high and hence should not affect REIT’s dividend payout. So I am not too perturbed by the drop and am happy to hold them for an average yield of about 5.9%.
*I do not have turnaround counter at this moment and the only value counter is HongKong Land.
Individual stocks
Top and Bottom Performers
I am glad that I have more top performers (including two core holdings) than bottom performers. One thing to note is that a high percentage does not necessarily translate to a much higher/lower portfolio performance as it depends on my position size for the counter. So, while Shopify, Booking Holdings have returned the most in percentage, they don’t move the portfolio much since my US positions are very much smaller. Similarly, for counters under punting, the exposure is so small that it hardly moves the portfolio.
Core Holdings
These 10 (out of 30) holdings make up 59% of my outlay cost are the ones that I am monitoring more closely. For the quarter, I have added more Raffles Medical, VICOM, iFAST, UMS. I have also re-entered Food Empire and the new entry is Nordic which replaced Straco after I have divested half of it.
- Raffle Medical (8.4%) @ $1.35
- Fraser Centrepoint Trust (6.4%) @ $2.06
- VICOM (6.0%) @ $5.82
- UMS (5.9%) @ 0.95
- iFAST (5.7%) @0.93
- Parkwaylife REIT (5.7%) @ $2.32
- Valuetronics (5.5%) @ $0.54
- Food Empire (5.5%) @ $0.67
- 800 Super (4.8%) @ $1.16
- Nordic (4.8%) @ $0.58
Other Actions Taken
I have posted my March actions in the middle of the month. Since then, I had taken the following actions.
- Sold half my holdings in Singtel at $3.46, recognizing a loss of 5.7% from my average price of $3.66.
- Re-entered Keong Hong at $0.57 with a small position after it won the NSC contract.
- Added more JD.com at US$41.91, bringing my average price to be US$44.76. Expect it to be volatile counter in short term but think it will do well in a few years time.
- Re-entered Booking Holding at US$2143.02, slightly below my earlier sold price. But if only I were slightly more patient, I could have bought it at a much better price.
What’s coming up?
April and May will see another round of earning reporting. Looking forward to positive earning reports from the following counters.
- Frasers Centrepoint Trust should continue to benefit from the recent completed AEI of Northpoint City, hence it should increase its DPU for the upcoming quarter.
- The earning momentum for UMS should continue for Q1 and she is likely to declare a 1 cent interim dividend.
- Valuetronics will have record revenue and earning for the year and is likely to declare HKD0.20 dividend.
- IFAST should continue to benefit from its offering of broader investment products and hence should achieve record Q1 revenue and earning. She will probably increase its dividend.
- Without impairment charges, Food Empire will rebound from its Q4 results. It should also show a better performance than last year’s Q1 due to the full contribution from the ingredient segment.
Towards Financial Independence 