Reporting Season Wrap Up
Welcome to the latest issue of the BKI Quarterly Report (our 14th). This Report, and previous issues, are available on our website at www.bkilimited.com.au
February Reporting Season Review
As we often do at this time of the year, we reflect on the latest round of company results. We consider the latest period of company results to be sound. As always, there are some results that disappoint but on the whole, profit numbers beat expectations. Many pundits continually claim that we are in a “low growth environment”. While this may be true for many pockets of the Australian economy, we were encouraged by both earnings reported and outlook statements by many companies in the BKI Portfolio.
The Australian market has been remarkably strong over the last twelve months. Many readers will be surprised to hear that the Australian stock market (as measured by the S&P/ASX 300 Accumulation Index) increased by 22% over the year to 28 February 2017. Remember this was a year that we witnessed Brexit, the surprise US election result and crude oil traded below USD$30 per barrel. BKI’s performance lagged the market, largely due to an underweight position in the Resources sector. Many resource companies do not pay dividends which makes the investment proposition difficult for us.