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Edinburgh US Tracker Trust plc

 

Objective

The objective of Edinburgh US Tracker Trust plc is to invest in a portfolio designed to track closely the S&P Composite Index, both in terms of capital and income.



Manager's Monthly Report

January 2010


Performance

The capital NAV of the Trust rose by 3.5% in December which was slightly ahead of the return from the S&P 500 Composite Index. The Company bought back 234,121 shares for cancellation during the month. Markets continued to rally in December and reached 12 month highs towards the end of the month. The much stronger than expected US employment report at the beginning of the month led to a positive shift in sentiment to the US dollar and prompted a reconsideration of monetary policy. While the Federal Reserve maintained its stance of keeping the fed funds rate at low levels for an extended period, its statement that it would shut down some of its liquidity facilities when the economy improves gave a further boost to investor sentiment. Abu Dhabi’s decision to bail out Dubai World with US$10bn helped reduce debt concerns and boosted banking stocks. In commodities, gold declined 7% in December, mainly due to the rebound in the dollar, but copper continued its upward trend and gained 6.4%.

Activity

The changes to the constituents of the Index in December were Mead Johnson Nutrition, Visa, Ross Stores, Cliffs Natural Resources, SAIC and Roper replacing MBIA, Ciena, Dynegy, KB Home, Convergys and Ensco International.

Strategy

The portfolio replicates in full the constituents and weightings of the S&P 500 Composite Index.


Source: Monthly Factsheet Aberdeen Asset Managers Limited