Sinolink - partial profit taken

With the recent run up in share prices, I have been asking myself whether it is time to take a little but of money off the table. Given that just about every decision to sell a share in the last few years has been a bad one, my judgement in these matters is clearly suspect.

In any case, I sold a few of my shares in Sinolink Holdings (HK:1168) at HKD 0.80 on Friday and a few more and HKD 0.82 this morning. Average purchase price (including transaction costs) was HKD 0.63. While it's nice to make a decent profit, given my opinion that the shares are worth considerably more than the current share price, I still hold most of my shares in this company.

Financial Review: March, 2015

March was another good solid month for my investments.

Net worth was more or less break even.  Asian equities appreciated, more or less offset by small falls in my Au/NZ equities and in commodities and slightly unfavourable FX movements. Expenses were high as I expensed the remaining half the cost of renovating a flat.

Here are the details:

1. my Hong Kong/China equity portfolio increased. I added HSBC (HK5) and sold China Starch (HK:3838) and Sichuan Express (HK:107);

2. my AU/NZ equities fell. There were no transactions this month;

3.my equity ETFs appreciated (India, Vietnam, Hong Kong and China) in line with the local markets. There were no new purchases;

4. my commodities fell slightly. Silver is my only position;

5. all tenants are paying on time. One property is vacant and is currently undergoing renovation;

6. currency movements were negative with the NZD and the AUD being flat;

7. my position in bonds remains small;

8. expenses were high due to expensing half of the renovation costs of a vacant rental flat;

9.there were no transfers to Mrs Traineeinvestor this month.

My cash position fell. I currently hold 32.1 months of expenses in HKD cash or equivalents. 

For March, my net worth was unchanged. Effectively, the portfolio generated enough positive return to cover the difference between my part time income and our expenses and the cost of the renovation work. The year to date increase is 1.69%.

Portfolio changes

A couple of weeks ago I decided to add HSBC (HK:5) to the portfolio. With a trailing yield of just under 6%, adequate capital adequacy and the battering of a series of scandals, I hoped that the share price had been pummelled to the point where not only had all the bad news had been priced in, but the market was anticipating more bad news.  I paid $65.50 for most of the shares I purchased and $67.40 for a small additional parcel.

Since I wish to keep a reasonable amount of cash on hand and would also like reduce the number of shares in the portfolio, I sold China Starch (HK:3838 and my smallest investment) at a loss and Sichuan Express (HK:107, a smallish investment) at a profit. Both of these companies have recently released disappointing results which followed previous disappointing results. The former has been blighted by significant increases in administration/marketing expenses and the latter by government polices adversely affecting toll roads.