My stocks portfolio (as at 30 Nov 2009) - Focusing on the long term underlying businesses of my stocks

This month of November has been an interesting month of seeing the advancement of STI index with the surge of prices of mainly blue chip stocks while penny stocks and S-chips remained muted with some pull backs. As such, most of my counters (some blue chips) were up. There was also news that Singapore has declared itself out of recession. However, at the end of November came the news of the Dubai's debt crisis which jolted the global stock markets. Singapore stocks market was not spared as the STI closed lower this Monday (30 November). There were some commentaries stating that the Dubai's debt crisis will be under control and will not have far reaching effects.

On a personal level, my portfolio saw some adjustments to one of my investments (MacarthurCook Industrial REIT). MacarthurCook Industrial REIT (MI-REIT) went through an EGM to approve some resolutions on a proposed recapitalisation exercise. It received heated disapproval from one of it's substantial unitholder Cambridge Industrial REIT regarding it's recapitalisation exercise stating that the exercise will destroy unitholders' value significantly in the REIT. I took the chance to partially divest from this investment to avoid being caught in the significant dilution of my investment in the REIT. I have shared my thoughts on the recapitalisation exercise of MI-REIT in an earlier post (http://jeremyowinvestingexperience.blogspot.com/search/label/MacarthurCook%20Industrial%20REIT%20%28MI-REIT%29). Readers can follow the post for more details on this recapitalisation exercise. I did not fully divest from this investment as I still see potential for further positive developments with the incoming of new strategic sponsors and investors into the REIT despite the massive destruction of unitholder value.

Of course, I will need to continue monitoring the future developments of this investment. As such, I may rebuild gradually my investment in MI-REIT if the future developments in this REIT are good. I am not going to marry this investment, but is still interested to look out for it's future developments and should things turn out wrong, I will not hesitate to divest my remaining investment in this REIT for other better alternative investments. Thus, I am all out to invest focusing on the long term potential of the underlying businesses of all my investments and not be short-sighted, focusing only on short-term hicupps along the way. My investment in MI-REIT is a good lesson of not wanting to be a stock owner but a business part-owner still looking out for it's future developments and not run away totally just because of an immediate dilution of unitholder value. My investment motto goes ,"Constant monitoring focusing on long term economics of underlying businesses of stocks."

My stock portfolio saw an increase to the realised gains (increase by $2202.40) over this month due to gains on divestment of MI-REIT. My total transaction costs went up slightly because of the trading costs on my partial divestment of MI-REIT. My portfolio cost is reduced to $85,630.10 due to the partial divestment as well. All in, my total gain (%) over my portfolio cost is 52.85% which is a slight improvement from last month (total gain of 47.53%). I will receive dividends from two of my investments (MI-REIT and Tat Hong Holdings) in December, of which I will include in the dividends amount received under my December portfolio update.

My portfolio cost saw a decrease due to my partial divestment of MI-REIT. As such, the market value of my portfolio also saw a corresponding decrease.

My portfolio continues to see an improvement reaching a total gain of 52.85% over portfolio cost. This is due to unrealised gains over most of my counters influenced by improving sentiments to the better economic outlook as Singapore declared itself out of recession and the continuing gradual global economic recovery.

My realised gains has increased slightly due to the partial divestment of MI-REIT this month. My total transaction cost also increased slightly due to associated trading cost for this partial divestment. Overall, my total net gains increased slightly from $44,623.49 at 30 October to $45,261.80 at 30 November.

Moving forward, I will continue to monitor the companies under my portfolio. I will be sharing more of my own background research into the companies under my portfolio. Eventually, I hope to provide extensive sharing on the individual companies under my portfolio.

Once again, I wish all readers a happy and fruitful investing journey! :-)