November 2019 portfolio update

Markets were up last month, I was a bit surprised there wasn't more of a sideways drift as we await any trade deals being agreed between the US and China, and domestically we get to "enjoy" the run in to the December election. An election I think was well summarised by Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics on CNBC “It is a terrible choice. Two dreadful, inadequate, dissembling, incompetent politicians and one of them is definitely going to be prime minister.”

I remain hopeful that a post-election Sterling rally will lower the price of few of the FTSE100, and also make overseas investments more palatable. There are a few blue chips I would like to add to the portfolio, and would also like to top up some of my current holdings, but am comfortable remaining patient.

I decided to add another renewable energy Investment Trust this month. I've arbitrarily decided that a premium of less than 10% puts them into buying territory. It's not ideal, but I've been on the sidelines for a while and there is clearly a long term trend towards renewables. These should also add a little diversification to the portfolio as their performance is less correlated to other equities.

Portfolio performance
The portfolio was up +2.7% in November, slightly ahead of my chosen benchmark the Vanguard FTSE All Share Accumulation which was up +2.2% over the same period.

Best performers this month:
Abcam +15%
Telecom Plus +11%
Computacenter +10%

Worst performers this month:
888 Holdings -9%
Compass -8%
Fulcrum Utilities -3%

November share purchase: NESF
NextEnergy Solar Fund (NESF) was the latest addition to the portfolio and joins Foresight Solar into which I invested in October. As I posted here I've been keeping an eye on renewable energy investment trusts for a while, but the high premiums have discouraged me. NESF drifted a little lower during the end of the month so I decided to invest.

NESF have 89 solar installations, mostly in the UK, with 8 in Italy. They have just finished their first subsidy free installation, and are due to complete a second, much larger, subsidy free plant in the next 6 months. They are a little smaller than Foresight but also a member of the FTSE 250. They listed in 2014, and have generated around 10% total return since IPO. I suspect this will be a little lower in the next year or two if the returns move closer to historical averages, but NESF pays a dividend in excess of 5% which I'll be happy to take.

Given the nature of the business I would expect it to be relatively Brexit proof, and may even benefit from a Labour Government, depending on how they want to fund investment into renewables (won't be holding my breath though). Nice to also see that during the first half of the year, NESF produced enough electricity to power 134,000 homes.