Portolio- 6month retrospective

This was me in Dec, I am here today:

Kenya:

Equity-remains unchanged. In any case I've now got many due to the spilt. Didn't really take advantage of the low of Ksh93, but would if it came around again. I like the focus on on augmenting regional income to 40% of total in the next 3-5 years.

Access Kenya- added some at Ksh20 and some at IPO price (was just great to see at that price). My average is now a healthy Ksh16 ffrom almost Ksh25 at one time. Will hold for a couple of years in the hope it get s bought.

Cash- still keeping some for any really attractively priced share.

Overall NSE view:

For anybody that was trading, the first half has been fabolous hunting ground on the NSE as I will show in a later post. My gut feel is that there isn't much momentum for the 2nd half of the year due to the bonds, possible IPOs (Consolidated, NSE are both slated for this year as is the bread maker) and I get a feeling that El Nina might be on the way.

Uganda:

Interested, in expanding portfolio from just Clay.

TZ:

DCB is a hold for a few years. In any case,I'll have to go to TZ to liquidate.

Zambia:

Sold Pamodzi Hotel at an fx loss of around 25%. Very illiquid share that I had bought with the thought of getting some kind of share spilt. Wapi.

FTSE:

Opened share trading account in earnest. Hoping to stay there until results season in 2010.

March and April were the wow months. Got via Barclays in mid-March doubled up in a couple of weeks, got out; got in again made another 50%. Jumped to RBS made similar.

May was the ouch month. Lost half my gains while pretending to be a day trader, full-time busy office worker, parent et al.

June was mostly boring until the last week. Up 5% down 5%. Very tedious especially when you are trying to get back to buy and hold.

Have learnt a similar amount to what I learned in 5/6 years at the NSE. A bird in hand is better than two in the bush; stock markets are legal pyramid schemes; get in when no one is interested; ignore broker recommendations; be fearless in buying and ignorant of past sell decisions.

Looking forward: have been tempted by China, oil, efts and will bite one of them. Plenty of other investment opportunities though the window is closing rapidly. Great business ideas but to need create time for them.

2008 Investing Highlights

This was me end of June, this is me today:

Kenya
Sold: In the money (NMG, TPS, ARM, NIC) & Out of the money (BBK, EA Cables)

Reduced: KCB

Switched to: Equity, Cash

Hold: Equity, AK, miniscule KCB (2,500 shares) & Safcom & Cash

TZ
Bought: Dar es salaam Community Bank

Zambia
Bought: Pamodzi Hotel

Theme has been to move from diversification of risk to concentration of gains. Has it worked? Yes and would have been even more fruitful if I had kept to one of my golden rules of never adding more shares unless the price of the said stock is lower than my average cost so far. I got punished for buying AK at Ksh33.50 thus driving my average for it to early 20s and Equity at Ksh301 and Ksh250 thus driving average to mid 120s.

Overall for the year: average i.e. below 30% gain. Had to rush out of BRIC nations just to stay in the money and NSE has been so-so but thankfully my offloads were all in July/Aug time.

Other investment decisions:
Good ones: Missed out on SIB’s private placement. Having opened a trading account and just about to send the funds to buy some shares at Ksh120, I once more request ed a copy of its accounts. Still not received even today. In the meantime, I now hear that the initial placement failed and subsequently the shares were retailing at ksh30!
Tough ones: After sweating to set up the investment club, I decided to move on because of strategic differences. So why I my still blogging as KCIG? Investment club changed its name.
Bad ones: Hesitated when was Equity was Ksh116…

Investing resource: Thanks Aly Khan for the live prices streaming. Some of my last minute price adjustments relied on the live feed.

Key learnings: Self-discipline, early bird mentality and thereafter liquidity and investors confidence are the key ingredients that turn good company/market fundamentals into investor bounty.