Continued bad news in the markets has caused a significant downturn for both portfolios this month. Economic slowdown in China was the biggest hit to global markets, specifically their surprise yuan devaluation. While news about Greece's economy has died down, the financial debt problems still continue to be a concern. At the same time, it was announced that Canada had slipped into a technical recession (two consecutive quarters of negative growth) during the first half of the year.
Here's the portfolio holdings that we created in May of this year. Last month, it was up over 6% but at the end of August, the May2015 portfolio was only up 1%. It has shed nearly 5% which is reflective of the overall Toronto stock market. National Bank (NA), the lone financial stock has taken the biggest hit, now down 12%. Stella Jones (SJ) down 1%, and Telus (T) just breaking even. The remainder of the stocks appear to be faring ok for now.
Here's the comparison chart of the May2015 holdings versus the broader TSX, since portfolio inception. The TSX is down almost 8% mostly due to energy and resource holdings weakness.
The May2015 performance chart shows a wild roller coaster during the month of August.
