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Artemis Alpha Trust PLC on Thursday announced a drop in net asset value for its latest half year, but said the currently adverse conditions will give way to ‘attractive returns’. The UK-focused investment trust said its net asset value per share was 327.14p at October 31, down 9.6% from 366.02 pence at the end of April. However, this did represent a 3.8% increase from 315.08p per share at the end of October 2022. Alpha Artemis added that over the same period, the FTSE All-Share index fell 5.9%. On the other hand the FTSE 250, which Alpha Artemis said ‘more closely resembles our portfolio’, fell 11%. ‘During the half-year, we suffered from our overweight exposure...to UK domestic equities where weak sentiment still prevails,’ explained Chair Duncan Budge. ‘However, the manager remains confident that these conditions offer the prospect of attractive future returns from the portfolio.’ Artemis Alpha also declared a 2.54 pence per share first interim dividend, up from 2.33p the prior year. Looking ahead, Artemis Alpha believes that ‘the first signs of an improvement in economic and market conditions’ are on the horizon, along with possible reductions to inflation and interest rates. ‘Our policy remains essentially one of picking individual stocks in pursuit of increasingly attractive long-term returns,’ Budge commented. Shares in Artemis Alpha were down 2.0% at 335.27p on Thursday afternoon in London. Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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