
Ordinary Shares

Price (p)	144.50
Published NAV	166.80
Yield	4.22
Discount	-12.88

Prices correct as of close 2012-05-18. Last Published NAV is as at the previous business day. Source: Trustnet

Sigma Shares

Price (p)	63.50
Published NAV	85.80
Yield	1.97
Discount	-25.29

Prices correct as of close 2012-05-18. Last Published NAV is as at the previous business day. Source: Trustnet

For Sigma Shares

March 2012
Equity markets were soothed by further positive company results and a growing sense of optimism that the worst might be over economically in the US and Europe. However, as we wrote last month, we continue to be nervous about the continuing difficulties faced in Greece and, especially, Spain and doubt whether Spain will be able to meet its revised 5.3% deficit target for 2012. We consider that macro risks may well resurface as tensions between the devolved Spanish regions and the central administration come to the fore. Adding to the risks, a number of Eurozone nations face structural and political problems as well as difficulties grappling front-loaded austerity programmes. For this reason we continue to keep gearing to a modest level and focus on bottom-up relative value opportunities rather than taking a directional view of markets.
72% of net assets of the Fund are held in UK, German or Swedish companies. Our top five holdings (amounting to a quarter of net assets) include two Central London specialists, two German residential specialists and Germany's largest listed shopping centre owner. With this level of concentration to prime assets in core markets, we feel confident about long term prospects.
The Sigma share class NAV with income increased by 3.74% in March, giving a total of 10.68% for the calendar year-to-date. This compares to 2.61% and 7.96% respectively for the small cap benchmark. For the financial year to the end of March the total return was -13.7% compared to the benchmark return of -12.1%. Gearing fell slightly to 4.9% in March as we were marginal sellers into the rising markets.