Monthly Investment Report December 2020

RNS Number : 1137L

Ruffer Investment Company Limited

08 January 2021

 

RUFFER INVESTMENT COMPANY LIMITED

(a closed-ended investment company incorporated in Guernsey with registration number 41996)

LEI 21380068AHZKY7MKNO47

Attached is a link to the Monthly Investment Report for December 2020.

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/1137L_1-2021-1-8.pdf

During December, the share price rose by 5.8% and the NAV rose 2.2%. This compared with a rise of 3.9% in the FTSE All-Share total return index. The NAV return for 2020 was 13.5% and the share price return was 17.0%. This was a good result relative to the Company's objectives, both in terms of the absolute performance and also in the all-weather nature of the positive returns made in rising and falling markets.

Christmas may have been cancelled for millions, but December continued to proffer gifts: equities, bonds and gold all rose. November's vaccine-induced recovery of value stocks may have waned as the second wave broke, but this weakness gave us the chance to add to favoured names. So, too, did the back and forth of political pantomimes. In America, Congress played chicken over additional fiscal stimulus, agreeing a deal at the eleventh hour. In the UK, Brexit's 'Deal or No Deal?' festive special ran to the wire, but the resulting deal should be enough to remove the uncertainties making UK stocks anomalously cheap. Profit-taking elsewhere kept the equity allocation largely unchanged at around 40%. Equities accounted for over 2.1% of performance in December. Gold added a further 0.5% and remains a key protection against accelerating paper currency debasement, alongside the inflation-protected bonds (c 35%) which did little this month. Over the whole of 2020 gold rose 25% (in USD) and mining stocks did better still, making them one of the biggest performance contributors for 2020. But new redoubts against currency compromise may also be emerging. The Company recently gained exposure to the cryptocurrency bitcoin mostly via the Ruffer Multi Strategies Fund - also home to our credit protection. As Brexit talks entered their unpredictable final stretch, we increased exposure to the US dollar (from around 7% to 17%). The greenback could still prove a powerful protection in a world starved of conventional offsets.

What of the road ahead? Froth is building in corners of the market as evidenced by booming IPOs and blank-cheque SPACs (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies). But market consensus expects the combination of fiscal and monetary support, pent-up demand and vaccine-induced economic re-opening will drive another positive year for stocks. If so, the portfolio's bias to economically sensitive equities should power returns. Yet 2020's lived experience underlines the need to prepare for the unexpected. It also suggests investors should focus more on what Michele Wucker described as 'gray rhinos': big risks hiding in plain sight which are ignored. Ballooning debt, inflation risk and political instability are examples. 2020 has acted as a 'great acceleration' of existing trends, fattening these 'gray rhinos' and making a world of higher volatility and deeper financial repression more likely. It will pay to be prepared. As always, we retain a balance of assets to protect and grow your investment whatever the weather.

Ashe Windham retired as chairman of the Ruffer Investment Company on 4 December. We would like to thank him for his dedication and service to shareholders since becoming Chairman in 2011. His inclusive and collegiate approach ensured that he chaired an effective board that was able to constructively challenge the manager and represent shareholder interests.

Enquiries:

Praxis Fund Services Limited

Gail Adams

DDI: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]  

 

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