Doceo Weekly Gainers

No 30%+ or 20%+ monthly gainers to report this week – the top performer on Winterflood’s list of highest monthly movers could ‘only’ manage a 13.5% gain. Is the recent spike in market volatility taking its toll?

By Frank Buhagiar•13 Aug, 2024

The Top Five

Crystal Amber (CRS) jumps from fourth to top spot on Winterflood’s list of biggest monthly movers in the investment company space. And that’s on the back of no news. In fact, nothing out from the small-cap investor since the 31 July 2024 Investee company update: Morphic Medical. The update highlighted an independent valuation of CRS’ equity interest in Morphic that came in at around US$75.8m (£59.1m). This would increase CRS’ unaudited NAV per share to 172.67p from 117.85p. Interestingly, CRS’ ‘mere’ +13.5% gain on the month (down from +32.9% previously) enough to secure top spot – a symptom perhaps of the uptick seen in market volatility this past week or so.

Jupiter Green (JGC), a new entry into the top five – a gain of +12.8% good for second place. As with CRS above, no news out from the environmental investor, but a look at the graph shows the shares started their move higher on 25 July 2024, round about the time of the latest doceo video update from investment manager Jon Wallace. The power of a good communications strategy there for all to see – the discount has since narrowed from -26% to around -15%.

Downing Strategic Micro-cap (DSM) managed to keep its place on the list despite a more than halving in the share price gain to +12.2% from +29.9%. There was yet another twist in the micro-cap investor’s tussle with activist investor Milkwood. Quick recap: DSM looking to wind itself up and return capital to shareholders; Milkwood looking to stop the realisation strategy in its tracks and get its nominees appointed to the board at the 5 August general meeting. The result of the general meeting though saw a clean sweep for the existing DSM board. As announced by the company “None of the Requisitioned Resolutions were carried.” Ball back in Milkwood’s court.

PRS REIT (PRSR) also in third place after exactly matching DSM’s +12.2% rise. Shares in the build-to-rent fund have been on the march ever since the 18 July 2024 Fourth Quarter Update. Second half of the press release’s title says it all “Continued Strong Portfolio Performance”. As for what strong portfolio performance looks like, how about an 11.7% increase in like-for-like rental growth compared to 12 months earlier. That’s not all, “The estimated rental value of the 5,396 completed homes at 30 June 2024 was £65.1m per annum, an 18% increase on the same point last year.”

JPMorgan US Smaller Co. (JUSC) returns to the list after a one-week absence. Two weeks ago, the shares were up +13.5% on no material news flow. Two weeks on and the monthly gain stands at +10.5% on no material news flow. Not much to report on the corporate front then. Different story in terms of markets. Take the Russell 2000. 31 July, the US small-cap index stood at 2254; by 7 August, it was nursing a 10% fall. JUSC couldn’t buck the trend, but it did outperform – over the same period the shares were off only -5.5%. Keep that up and the fund could be on course for another year of outperformance.

Scottish Mortgage

Scottish Mortgage’s (SMT) share price finished the week ended Friday 9 August 2024 down -7.6% on the month. That’s an improvement on the previous -8.6% deficit. The NAV monthly loss stretched to -7.6% from -5.6%. The wider global sector’s loss meanwhile increased marginally to -4.1% from -3.8% seven days earlier. With the tech-heavy Nasdaq largely flat, SMT’s ongoing buyback programme making the difference perhaps, enabling the global growth investor’s share price to outperform.