Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 4351K

Scottish Oriental Smlr Co Tst PLC

18 December 2008

 



THE SCOTTISH ORIENTAL SMALLER COMPANIES TRUST PLC

Interim Management Statement - 3 months to 30 November 2008

Scottish Oriental aims to achieve long term capital growth by investing in smaller Asian quoted companies with market capitalisations under US$1,000m, or the equivalent thereof, at the time of first investment.  Asia is deemed to include the Indian subcontinent but excludes Japan and Australasia.

• Scottish Oriental's net asset value (NAV) fell by 32.1% over the period compared to falls of 29.1% in the MSCI Asia (ex Japan) Index and 38.8% in the Nomura Asia Small Cap Index.

• The Trust's underperformance relative to the MSCI Asia (ex Japan) Index was largely due to its underweight position in China and Hong Kong and overweight position in Indonesia and Thailand.

• Smaller companies generally underperformed their larger counterparts over the three month period. 

• The share price fell 34.8% to 170.75p over the period resulting in a widening of the discount to net asset value to 17.9%.

General Information #

	30/11/2008	31/08/2008
NAV per share	207.87p	306.13p
Share price	170.75p	262.00p
Discount to NAV	-17.9%	-14.4%
Shares in issue	30,213,650	30,213,650
Net assets	£62.8m	£92.5m
Market capitalisation	£51.6m	£79.2m

# The information provided above is based on unaudited, capital only figures.

Up to date NAV and share price information is available on First State Investments website

www.firststateinvestments.com.

For further information please contact:- Susie Rippingall at First State Investments in Hong Kong by telephone [phone]) or email ([e-mail]).

 

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