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1 Includes net
revenue of 0.25p.
2 Excluding
12,841,697 ordinary shares held in treasury.
3 The Company’s
ongoing charges are calculated as a percentage of average daily net
assets and using the management fee and all other operating
expenses excluding finance costs, direct transaction costs, custody
transaction charges, VAT recovered, taxation and certain other
non-recurring items for the year ended 30 November 2023.
In
addition, the Company’s Manager has also agreed to cap ongoing
charges by rebating a portion of the management fee to the extent
that the Company’s ongoing charges exceed 1.25% of average net
assets.
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Commenting
on the markets, Tom Holl and Mark Hume, representing the Investment
Manager noted:
The
Company’s NAV (Net Asset Value) increased by 0.5% in July (in GBP
terms).
The
month began with a lower-than-anticipated US Consumer Price Index
(CPI) figure, coupled with subdued US labour market statistics,
which supported market expectations that the Federal Reserve may
make an initial interest rate cut in September. Markets ended the
month with increased uncertainty over the strength of the US
economy and the valuations of Artificial Intelligence related
companies that have led market performance this year, leading to a
mixed performance from the world's largest technology
firms.
Within
conventional energy, evidence of weaker than expected oil demand
from China was a headwind. For context, the International Energy
Agency (IEA) revised oil demand growth expectations for China from
712kbpd at the start of the year to 415kbpd in its July Oil Market
Report. The Brent oil price fell by 6.7%, whilst the WTI fell by
4.2%, ending the month at $81/bbl and $79/bbl respectively. The US
Henry Hub natural gas price fell by 21.5% during the month to end
at $2.04/mmbtu.
Within the mining
sector, mined commodity prices were mostly soft, with copper and
iron ore (62% fe.) prices falling by 3.7% and 4.2% respectively.
Gold bucked the trend, however, rising by 4.1% as declining real
interest rate expectations and US dollar weakness were tailwinds.
China held its Third Plenum during the month, a key meeting which
takes place roughly every five years and aims to map out long-term
economic and social policies. A broad range of reform measures were
announced (over 300 in total) but the market appeared disappointed
it didn’t contain more drastic property support measures. We also
saw a pick-up in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity with
Cleaveland-Cliffs announcing the acquisition of Stelco, BHP and
Lundin Mining announcing a joint acquisition of Filo
Corp.
Within the energy
transition theme, a report by Ember highlighted that in the first
six months of the year, the 13 EU member states produced more
electricity from renewable wind and solar power than from fossil
fuels. Meanwhile, in a press release, WindEurope announced that
“grid access is the new bottleneck – the number one bottleneck, to
the build-out of wind”, with grid connections and expansion and
planning timelines highlighted as areas of focus. Elsewhere, in
clean transportation, ridesharing group Uber announced it was
purchasing 100,000 EVs from BYD as it seeks to focus on European
and Latin American markets. According to Bloomberg NEF’s latest
electric vehicle outlook, US electric vehicle sales could make up
30% of new car sales by 2027 compared to 14% in 2023. By 2027, US
EV sales are seen rising to 4.5 million units, against less than
1.5 million last year.
20
August 2024
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Latest
information is available by typing www.blackrock.com/uk/beri on the
internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on
Topic 3 (ICV terminal).
Neither the
contents of the Manager’s website nor the contents of any website
accessible from hyperlinks on the Manager’s website (or any other
website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this
announcement.
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