Portfolio Update for November 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 November, it is a rather stagnant month.  After the release of the better than expected October CPI numbers, and the slightly better than expected retail numbers (though there is a decline), the markets staged a minor recovery as markets believe the possibility of a soft landing, and once again, awaiting the possibility of a FED pivot.  Nonetheless, all the official numbers released to date point to the market expectations of no further rate hikes in 2023 and 2024, and instead, rate cuts starting in 2nd half of 2024.

Although this sounds positive to the market, which marks the rebound in my US Growth Portfolio, but higher interest rates for longer duration means the stress for the REITs still remain.  Therefore, besides the exceptional rebound made by the US office/commercial REITs that were previously very badly beaten down in share prices, the recovery of the other S-REITs are quite muted.  Nonetheless in the short-term, 10-year bond yields have once again retreated to below 4.5%, and the weakening of the US Dollar helped to prop up the US market.  However, the REITs have remain stagnant, and weirdly, resumed back its pull-back in the last week.

As the US market has been performing well, as such, I decided to 'clean-up' my US Growth Portfolio this month by selling away 2 small holdings, namely META ETF and Palantir. Do note that this META ETF is not Facebook, but an ETF comprising of Roblox, Apple, Meta (Facebook), Nvidia, Microsoft and TSMC, just to name a few. As one would notice, Apple, Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft have all reach new highs or 52-week highs recently, but the performance of this ETF is dragged down by other stocks in it, and the relatively high expense ratio. Therefore, with Meta (Facebook) moving away from the metaverse, I decided to cut loss on this ETF (down about 20%) since the initial rationale for buying this ETF is no longer valid. I only made the decision to sell now because the loss is manageable during this rebound. For Palantir, the reason for selling it is because it is a small holding, and I am contented with the approximately 73% profit after the run-up in share price this year, which is more than sufficient to cover my losses in META ETF.

On a happier note, the end of November also marks the end of the earnings reporting season for Singapore stocks. I am glad to announce another record year of dividends, as the dividends that I will collect in the final quarter of 2023 increased by 15% compared to 2022, and this brings my total dividends to be collected for 2023 being 25% higher than that in 2022. All in all, I am going to be a happy dividend investor collecting my dividends in December.  Details of the numbers will be released in the next post.

Overall, my portfolio is positive for the month, thanks to the US Growth Portfolio, with Microsoft and Apple hitting new highs, and VOO ETF hovering near 52-week highs as well.

For this month, I injected approximately SGD 2.5K capital buying the following shares:

SGX:    Frasers Logistics and Commercial Trust

             Singapore Technologies Engineering

US:       Tesla   

On the other hand, I have sold the following shares:

US:       META ETF

             Palantir

Total Portfolio Value has increased slightly by approximately 3.2% to around SGD 486K including capital injection and excluding the cash collected from the sale of the 2 US shares, which also helped to prop up my cash reserves slightly.  I will continue to remain patient, slowly DCA into the market, and also reinvest the dividends back into the market to compound my portfolio.  Moving ahead, I may also do some minor trading in my US Growth Portfolio if the share price rose to my target price.  I do not know if the rumored recession will come in 2024, but it is always good to realize some profits when the price is right.  I shall continue to stay positive but remain cautious, while collecting my dividends in the upcoming months!  Hopefully by 2024, inflation will be subdued and pressure from high interest rates can be alleviated.

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