Exposure to Panama helped BlackRock’s Latin America trust’s share price to rise in spite of stagnation in the market in March, the manager has said.
In March, the £302.4m investment trust’s share price rose by 1.5 per cent, compared to no change for its benchmark, the MSCI EM Latin America Free index. The trust’s net asset value declined by 0.8 per cent.
“Performance during the month was helped by our exposure to Panama,” Mr Landers said.
“Our low weighting, relative to the index, in Colombia also helped.”
At the end of March, the trust had 1.3 per cent of its equity portfolio in Panama, compared to 0 per cent for the index. It had 3 per cent in Colombia, compared to 5.5 per cent for the index.
Eight of the 10 largest equity positions in the portfolio are based in Brazil, which Mr Landers said is “based on our expectations of a continuation of the middle class growth story along with a more market friendly tone from the current administration”.
But he added that “fiscal, monetary and regulatory uncertainties continue to weigh heavily on the Brazilian market”.
During the month, the trust increased exposure to Canadian-listed Colombian oil producer Pacific Rubiales and Brazilian banks Itau and Banco do Brasil.
It sold Fibria, a Brazilian paper company, and reduced exposure to Banorte, Mexichem, Copa Holdings and Banco Bradesco, which funded new positions in Mexican real estate investment trust Terrafina and infrastructure company IEnova.
The manager said that largest holding Vale had “performed poorly”.
