Not unsurprisingly, this was of course largely due to the commodity stocks in the portfolio.
As the industry leader BHP Billiton stated recently, people will look back on 2017 as the year electric vehicles (EVs) made their breakthrough. While China saw significant numbers produced for the first time, politicians have effectively forced car manufacturers to change direction - not least because of the diesel affair.
The fund benefited chiefly from investments in Galaxy Resources, Mineral Resources, Panoramic Resource, Lynas Corp and Piedmont Lithium, all of which have a stake in this issue through the metals and minerals they produce. The trend continued with even more vigour at the start of October. Towards the end of the quarter, positions were also taken out in this area in Pilbara Minerals and Syrah Resources.
We are glad to report that the old (and large) holdings in Highfield Resources, Finders Resources and Strike Energy also made major contributions to performance after lagging for a period.
Positions in BWX Ltd and HUB Ltd were closed after price rises, as was an investment in S32 Ltd - the latter, to avoid the mining exposure becoming too big.
The very large holdings in Highfield, Finders and Panoramic were trimmed as prices rose for reasons of risk management.
The very successful investment in Starpharma Ltd was also steadily reduced owing to its high weighting. The fund continues to hold a strong position in the latter company.
Qutlook
The new quarter got off to a very positive start and both absolute performance and outperformance improved even further.