Bankers Investment Trust looking to US for NAV return

The Bankers Investment Trust says Eurozone headwinds have forced it to increase its exposure to US equities, but the firm still managed to grow net asset value (NAV) per share ahead of its comparator, the FTSE All-Share.

NAV per share for the six months ending on April 30th was 472.9p, up 5.8% on the same period of 2011, and better than FTSE All-Shares's gain of 4.3% (although noticeably less than the 10.9% achieved by the S&P 500).

The appreciable recovery in the US has prompted the Bankers Investment Trust to increase its American holdings to 22.7% of the portfolio from 19.9%, financed by sales of UK and European stocks.

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Total assets, less liabilities, now stand at £549.4m versus £521.3m at the same point in 2011.

The firm makes much of its dividend policy, with confirmation that the payout this year will be 13.2p per share, an increase of 4% on the prior year. Bankers has been helped by a number of major firms boosting (or simply beginning) their dividends, it cites Apple and Vodafone as examples.

The market seemed non-plussed at the results, by 08:56 Bankers' shares were down 0.17%. Since the beginning of this year the stock has gained 4%.

BS