Alliance Trust chair: 'We are making good strides towards profitability'

Despite underperformance in June

Alliance Trust's chairman Lord Smith of Kelvin has said it is 'making good strides towards profitability' amid the trust reaching a share price high of 553p, as at 20 July.

The trust underperformed throughout June when its quoted equity holdings suffered, giving up the outperformance recorded over the first five months of the year. Its total shareholder return of 2.6% and NAV of 6.6% was below the trust's MSCI ACWI benchmark return of 12%, and its discount had widened to 11.4% at the period end compared to a discount of 7.9% at the end of December. However, the trust's share price rose to 524p as at the six months ended 30 June, compared to 484p per share during the same time last year. Lord Smith said: "In volatile markets we continue to make good pr...