In QuotedData’s morning briefing 17 April 2024:

• VietNam Holding (VNH) announced a monthly update highlighting that the company’s NAV rose +4.4% for March due to the outperformance of holdings in retail, telecoms, and construction. The manager noted that Vietnam’s economy continued its exports-led growth story in March, posting a relatively impressive GDP rise of 5.7% for the first quarter of 2024 (Q1 2024). While this was the highest first quarter expansion in Vietnam since 2020, it happened at a softer pace than expected with all main sectors growing less than they did during the fourth quarter of 2023, when GDP expanded by 6.7%.
• The Schroder Japan Trust (SJG) announced its interim results for the six month period ending 31 January 2023. The company produced a NAV total return of 10.3%, outperforming the Benchmark total return of 9.1%. The share price also produced a positive total return of 5.8% during the period. Performance over the period was helped by strong stock selection across machinery, glass and ceramics, and information and communication. From a style perspective, holdings of value stocks outperformed the growth portion of the portfolio. The use of financial leverage was also helpful to performance over the period. The manager noted the strong start to the year made by the Japanese equity market with the Nikkei 225 Index recently exceeding its previous high achieved in 1989. The Board remains very positive on the long-term equity market outlook because corporate Japan is in the middle of a major transformation which is already resulting in improved shareholder returns.
• Picton Property has completed the disposal of its second largest office asset at Angel Gate, London EC1, for £29.6m, representing a 5% premium to the 31 December 2023 independent valuation. A proportion of the proceeds will be used to fully repay the £16.4m outstanding balance on the company’s revolving credit facility, with the remainder available for appropriate future investment opportunities.