Portfolio Update for October 2023

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This will be a relatively short post, just to update on the transactions for the month.

For the month of October, it is a disastrous month for my REITs-heavy portfolio.  With the US government raising money by selling loads of long term US Treasury Bonds, coupled with news that China and Japan are selling chucks of US bonds, it causes the 10-year bond yields to shoot up to 5%.  This is made worst by sudden outbreak of war in the Middle East between Hamas and Israel, which causes the oil price to creep up towards USD 90+ or even USD 100.  This is by no means favorable in any way for the inflation numbers, and that probably means high interest rates would probably remain high for longer duration.  All these news are negatively impacting my portfolio, and finally, my portfolio went down into the deeper red to near the levels back in October 2022.

In addition, depending on the upcoming inflation numbers, we may have to deal with another rate hike this month in November or December.  Even if the rate hike is not going to happen, high interest rates may remain high through 2024 till something somewhere breaks.  Recently, the 3-month SORA rates are creeping up to above 3.7%, that is going to make my mortgage shoot through the roof after the lock in period ends next year.

Closer to home, it is also the period where REITs release their earnings for the last quarter this year.  As expected, Mapletree Logistics Trust reported a relatively stable set of results with slight positives, due to income support that allow distribution per unit (DPU) to rise by approximately 0.9% for the quarter.  Without income support, DPU would have fallen by 0.9% instead due to higher borrowing costs and other expenses.  Performance of Mapletree Industrial Trust has stabilized for the past quarter, with only a slight single digit percentage dip in DPU.  Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust (MPACT) continued to remain under pressure due to the high interest rates, and for MPACT, the performance of its overseas properties are still unsatisfactory with negative rental reversions, but with signs of improvement.  The single digit percentage decline in DPU also showed improvement in their performance.  Hopefully 2024 will be better.

Nonetheless, I am going to be a contented dividend investor collecting my dividends in the upcoming months.  Early next month, the other stocks and remaining REITs in my portfolio will release their earnings results and some will announce the dividends.  I shall sit back and relax, and enjoy this period to collect dividends and ignore the volatility that is beyond my control.  When the time and price is right, will continue to reinvest the dividends.

Overall, my portfolio is very negative for the month.  The overall value crashed to a new 9-month low, and no thanks to the REITs, Google (which experience more than 10% after earnings release), Tesla (after releasing poorer than expected earnings results) and JP Morgan (after news that Jamie Dimon is planning to sell 1 million shares next year).

For this month, I injected approximately SGD 2.9K capital buying the following shares:

SGX:    Capitaland Integrated Commercial Trust

             Frasers Logistics and Commercial Trust

             Mapletree Logistics Trust

             Mapletree Industrial Trust

             ParkwayLife REIT

US:       Google-C

             Tesla

             VOO ETF

In addition, I have also reinvested dividends on the following shares:

SGX:    Capitaland Integrated Commercial Trust

             Mapletree Logistics Trust

             Mapletree Industrial Trust

Total Portfolio Value has plunged by approximately 4.5% to a low of around SGD 471K including capital injection.  Compared to the milestone of SGD 505K market value in end of July, the portfolio has crashed by 6.7% in 3 months.  This definitely de-motivates me a little, but again, all the worries and fear in the market due to inflation, interest rates and the war are all beyond my control, so my concerns are beyond me.  I shall just remain contented that being diversified, my portfolio value did not crash more than it already has.  For now, I will continue to remain patient, be contented with any amount of dividends I am going to collect in the upcoming months, and also reinvest the dividends back into the market to compound my portfolio.  Moving ahead, interest rates will continue to remain elevated probably through 2024.  I shall continue to stay positive but remain cautious, and wishfully let collecting dividends be the pillar of support in these turbulent times!  Hopefully by end of 2024, inflation will be subdued and pressure from high interest rates can be alleviated, and peace will prevail by then.

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