Aberdeen Asian Income Outperforms Benchmark Despite Negative Return

LONDON (Alliance News) - Aberdeen Asian Income Fund Ltd said on Friday it outperformed its benchmark for 2018, despite reporting a negative return on net asset value.

The fund said its net asset value negative return was 5.5%, compared to a negative return of 8.3% from the MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan Index.

Net asset value per share as at the end of 2018 was 213.96 pence, down 9.2% from 235.63p the year before. Aberdeen Asian's share price as at December 31 was 195.75p, reflecting a widened discount to net asset value of 8.5% from 7.5%.

Shares in Aberdeen Asian Income Fund were down 0.7% on the day Friday at 212.42 pence, having improved since the year-end.

Although it was in general a tough year for Asian markets, Aberdeen Asian's portfolio benefited from a lower exposure to China, which was hampered by concerns on a slowing economy and trade tensions between it and the US.

The fund's technology holdings also performed well, with Samsung Electronics for example increasing its dividend on higher profit, and mining stocks BHP Group PLC, South32 PLC and Rio Tinto PLC paying higher returns due to stronger profit.

Aberdeen Asian Income declared a dividend of 9.15 pence per share, up from 9.00p the prior year.

Looking ahead, Aberdeen Asian said that it expects market volatility to persist, on worries over a further slowdown in China and a weak global macro backdrop. Although sentiment has improved over hopes on a US-China trade settlement, the fund said that an immediate resolution is "elusive".