May 2014: Portfolio Update.

May 2014, and its nice to see my portfolio trying to close the gap on the FTSE100 and year to date parity following the speedbump provided by my largest holding Rolls-Royce.

A first dividend from Verizon Communications, and BAT, was added to a nice dividend from Aviva, a growing dividend from Apple and then BG.
Typically my 4th best month for dividends (2013 Dividends profiled.).

So with this little boost my portfolio recorded 2.1% in the month bring the year to date shortfall down to just 0.7%.
The FTSE100's lesser 0.95% gain was still enough to lift its year to date performance to 1.41% though.

Nice to see Apple recovering its bounce with an 8.03% increase int he month followed by a 7.67% bounce in the newly held Verizon Communications.
A shame then that the exchange rate has swung firmly back into sterlings favour as the UK starts to benefit from the perception of economic growth this year.
Good for UK visitors to the US but not good for my $ holdings which suffer from the valuation conversion back into sterling.

The usual table:

Merchant Adventurer's Index
			Forecast	1 month	YTD	41 mth
	Price	% holding	Div. yield	% gain	% gain	% gain
R-R	1040.00p	29.46%	2.23%	-0.95%	-16.90%	58.42%
National Grid	890.00p	15.32%	4.86%	5.89%	12.94%	60.94%
Aviva	524.00p	12.03%	3.14%	-0.29%	16.52%	55.09%
BP	503.00p	5.73%	4.65%	0.76%	3.06%	11.04%
Apple **	$632.94	6.60%	0.26%	8.03%	11.16%	48.22%
Vodafone	209.50p	2.24%	5.44%	-4.90%	-16.96%	-16.96%
Verizon **	2981.57p	1.52%	3.61%	7.67%	7.43%	7.43%
IG Group	601.50p	4.23%	4.26%	-5.42%	-2.35%	26.05%
William Hill	355.60p	3.17%	3.46%	0.25%	-11.52%	93.08%
Imperial Tobacco	2692.00p	2.96%	5.20%	5.28%	15.14%	19.17%
BAT	3600.50p	2.67%	4.05%	5.37%	11.20%	7.34%
General Electric **	$26.79	2.03%	2.85%	0.34%	-5.82%	63.47%
Microsoft **	$40.94	1.97%	2.35%	2.06%	7.78%	36.48%
BAE Systems	423.10p	1.65%	4.87%	5.78%	-2.74%	28.21%
Centrica	335.60p	1.65%	5.24%	1.70%	-3.48%	1.21%
SSE	1556.00p	1.68%	5.75%	2.03%	13.58%	27.02%
Morrisons	201.70p	0.99%	6.51%	0.40%	-22.72%	-24.63%
BG Group	1221.00p	1.39%	1.51%	1.92%	-5.90%	-5.79%
Tesco	303.55p	0.95%	4.62%	3.62%	-9.21%	-23.91%
Cash		1.76%	13.73%
		100.00%	3.53%
				1 Month	YTD	41 mth
Virtual Portfolio gain (incl. Dividends)
- 1 month gain   2080.69 -	2124.32			2.10%
- YTD gain         1644.62 -	2124.32				-0.70%
- 41 month gain 1264.20 -	2124.32					68.04%
- 53 month gain 1000.00 -	2124.32					112.43%
FTSE gain (excl. Dividends)
- 1 month gain   6780.03 -	6844.51			0.95%
- YTD gain         5897.81 -	6844.51				1.41%
- 41 month gain 5971.01 -	6844.51					14.63%
- 53 month gain 5412.88 -	6844.51					26.45%
Transactions:
06/05/2014	Div	Verizon @ 26.51p per share
08/05/2014	Div	BAT @ 81.2p per share
16/05/2014	Div	Aviva @ 9.4p per share
20/05/2014	Div	Apple @ 208.86p per share
30/05/2014	Div	BG Group @ 9.51p per share
Notes:
*     US Dividends are adjusted for exchange rate and 15% withholding tax
**   Sterling : Dollar exchange rate = £1: $1.67563 as at month end And, the chart once again shows the strong trend of previous years (excepting last years above trend highs).

Click to enlarge, close to return.

So things feel much better given that my portfolio is back within a whisker of its highs despite the Rolls-Royce effect. 
And, with time having moved on 4 months, future forecasts are starting to be better understood and "some" speculative valuations are once again seeming more comfortable.

I'm starting to take an interest in new investments with housebuilders, and banks having been mentioned but I'm also rethinking technology with both ARM and Imagination pulling back this year.
Anyway, I'm closing in on the half year and bringing everything back up to date!