Investment Review - March 2015

It's been two months since I lasted shared the combined portfolio, mainly because most of the immediately preceding posts were all very much on the same theme and I don't want the blog to become a strictly personal finance offering.

However, for the record, here's the data at the end of March compared to the last posting at the end of January ....

Stock / Fund Sales in the Period
I sold out of my TSB holding at 331p net for a 27.5% profit over book, on the day the price soared on the news that a takeover approach had been received.

I also sold out of my entire Rio Tinto holding for £31.51 net, at what represented a neutral position.  This is the type of cyclical share I used to regularly buy and sell, and so it's possible I'll buy back in on the next significant price fall.

Stock / Fund Purchases in the Period
In early March, I bought into Zincox Resources at 13.03p gross, which has promptly fallen to a position where I'm currently sitting on a 25% loss !  However, I'm hoping the stock has future value, being a new process technology in a mining and metals sector with which I'm familiar, although it was a friend who first brought this one to my attention.   I'd watched it for a short while - their new plant has been fully operational for several months - but it now looks like I still jumped in far too early.

I also took up my option for the rights issue in Petropavlovsk, the Russian gold miner, at 5p per new share on a 15.7 for 1 offer basis.   I thought long and hard about this one, but the choice was either to pile in and be damned or see my existing holding diluted into worthlessness.    The company is a big gold producer and hopefully the rights issue and restructuring has reduced their debt repayments to more manageable levels given the huge fall in the gold price in recent years.   At least, that's what I've convinced myself...


With additional funding in February and March, I completed the process of subscribing to the maximum 2014-2015 ISA allowance of £15,000.

On the whole, this period continued a trend to move back into cash - valuations still look a little scary to me, although its generally been a good couple of months in the markets ....