WEBINAR: Global Portfolio June 2018 - Annualised return back to 35%; goodbye MetroBank, hello Adobe

A good month for the share prices of Amazon and Alphabet, which between them account for 40% of the portfolio, ensured a healthy uplift from $358k to $360k in the total portfolio, despite some notable price declines elsewhere in the portfolio. Chinese companies Tencent and Alibaba came under pressure as Donald Trump cranked up the rhetoric around his proposed trade war, and Apple also eased because of its exposure to the Middle Kingdom. All emerging market currencies suffered in the wake of heightened tension, including the Rand, which fell from R12.45 against the US Dollar to R13.68. The Rand was also impacted by concerns over implications of the ANC’s stated approach towards Expropriation without Compensation of land. As the portfolio is a pure Rand-hedge, the currency’s decline has a very positive impact on its value for South African investors, lifting the total from R4.5m to R4.75m.