Merrill Lynch Commodities Income IT
20 April 2006
MERRILL LYNCH COMMODITIES INCOME INVESTMENT TRUST plc
All information is at 31 March 2006 and unaudited.
Performance at month end is calculated on a capital only basis
One One Since
Month Month Launch*
Net asset value 8.6% 12.1% 12.6%
Share price 6.6% 11.7% 15.1%
*Launched on 13 December 2005.
Sources: Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and Datastream.
At month end
Net asset value: 109.25p
Share price: 114.00p
Premium to NAV: 4.3%
Total assets: £82.9m
Gearing: 2.0%
Ordinary shares in issue: 75,000,000
Sector Weightings % of Total Assets Country Analysis % of Total Assets
Diversified 17.7 Europe 23.3
Integrated Oil 13.8 Canada 23.3
Copper 9.5 USA 18.0
Coal 7.1 Australia 13.3
Exploration & production 7.0 South Africa 7.8
Platinum 6.5 Latin America 6.0
Oil Sands 6.1 China 5.3
Iron Ore 6.0 Kazakhstan 2.1
Aluminium 5.9 Russia 1.4
Nickel 5.5 Asia 1.0
Oil Services 3.1 Current Liabilities (1.5)
Refining and Marketing 2.9 ------
Mineral Sands 2.8 Total 100.0
Zinc 2.3 ------
Distribution 1.8
Diamonds 1.5
Gold 1.4
Tin 0.6
Current Liabilities (1.5)
------
Total 100.0
------
Ten Largest Equity Investments
Company Region of Risk
Anglo American Global
BHP Billiton Global
Canadian Oil Sands Canada
China Shenhua Energy China
Cia Vale Rio Doce Latin America
Fording Canadian Coal Trust Canada
Impala Platinum Holdings South Africa
Peyto Energy Trust Canada
Precision Drilling Canada
Rio Tinto Europe
Commenting on the markets, Richard Davis, representing the Investment Manager
noted:
Commodities registered some excellent returns during the month. Zinc and copper
were the top performing base metals with US$ gains of 16.8% and 14.2%
respectively. Both metals registered new all-time highs. Strong demand and
limited new supply continue to drive prices. Supply-side issues have been
particularly acute in the zinc market in recent months, where a number of
production failures and closures have resulted in a large drawdown in metal
inventories.
In the energy sector, oil and gas prices were up 8.5% and 5.0% respectively.
Supply disruptions in Nigeria, the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico provided
upward pressure on prices despite unusual stock builds during the quarter.
Iran's plans to develop nuclear capabilities and a slowdown in Russia's oil
production growth were also supportive of prices. Meanwhile, China's crude
imports for the first two months of 2006 rose 34.3% year-on-year.
Going forward, we believe strong demand and weak supply growth could sustain the
bullish trend in commodity prices. Equities are attractively priced in our
view.
Latest information is available by typing www.mlim.co.uk/its on the internet,
'MLIMINDEX' on Reuters, 'MLIM' on Bloomberg or '8800' on Topic 3 (ICV terminal).
20 April 2006
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
*A Private Investor is a recipient of the information who meets all of the conditions set out below, the recipient:
Obtains access to the information in a personal capacity;
Is not required to be regulated or supervised by a body concerned with the regulation or supervision of investment or financial services;
Is not currently registered or qualified as a professional securities trader or investment adviser with any national or state exchange, regulatory authority, professional association or recognised professional body;
Does not currently act in any capacity as an investment adviser, whether or not they have at some time been qualified to do so;
Uses the information solely in relation to the management of their personal funds and not as a trader to the public or for the investment of corporate funds;
Does not distribute, republish or otherwise provide any information or derived works to any third party in any manner or use or process information or derived works for any commercial purposes.
Please note, this site uses cookies. Some of the cookies are essential for parts of the site to operate and have already been set. You may delete and block all cookies from this site, but if you do, parts of the site may not work. To find out more about the cookies used on Investegate and how you can manage them, see our Privacy and Cookie Policy
To continue using Investegate, please confirm that you are a private investor as well as agreeing to our Privacy and Cookie Policy & Terms.