End 2007:
Share Weight
Imperial Tobacco Group plc 4.43%
Stagecoach Hldgs plc 4.04%
National Grid Transco plc 3.96%
BT Group plc 3.71%
Imp.Chem.Ind.plc 3.71%
Compass Group plc 3.69%
Tesco plc 3.69%
BP plc 3.62%
United Utilities plc 3.61%
BAe Systems plc 3.61%
Royal Dutch Shell plc B 3.46%
Vodafone Group plc 3.21%
Prudential Corp plc 3.21%
Trinity Mirror plc 3.20%
Lloyds TSB Group plc 3.18%
Northern Foods plc 3.11%
DS Smith plc 3.08%
Tomkins plc 2.96%
Mapeley Limited 2.79%
Segro plc 2.77%
HBOS plc 2.73%
Royal & Sun All Ins Gp plc 2.73%
Taylor Wimpey plc 2.69%
Kingfisher plc 2.68%
Marks & Spencer plc 2.66%
Cadbury-Schweppes plc 2.47%
Rentokil Initial plc 2.45%
AstraZeneca plc 2.39%
Tate & Lyle plc 2.37%
DSG International plc 2.37%
Premier Foods plc 2.26%
Rexam plc 2.16%
Thus Group plc 0.22%
ITV plc 0.21%
And end 2008:
Share Weight
Compass Group plc 4.6%
BP plc 4.3%
Vodafone Group plc 4.1%
William Hill plc 4.1%
Kingfisher plc 4.1%
AstraZeneca plc 4.0%
United Utilities plc 4.0%
Royal Dutch Shell plc B 4.0%
Imperial Tobacco Group plc 3.9%
Premier Farnell plc 3.9%
BAe Systems plc 3.8%
Tate & Lyle plc 3.7%
Tesco plc 3.6%
Tomkins plc 3.6%
National Grid Transco plc 3.4%
Anglo American plc 3.4%
Marks & Spencer plc 3.3%
Royal & Sun All Ins Gp plc 3.3%
Northern Foods plc 3.3%
Prudential Corp plc 3.3%
BT Group plc 3.2%
Rexam plc 3.2%
DS Smith plc 2.9%
Segro plc 2.5%
Yule Catto plc 2.1%
Lloyds TSB Group plc 2.0%
Rentokil Initial plc 2.0%
Trinity Mirror plc 1.7%
Premier Foods plc 1.4%
Cattles plc 1.2%
DSG International plc 0.7%
Taylor Wimpey plc 0.6%
Mapeley Limited 0.3%
ITV plc 0.2%
Portfolio changes included the sale of Cadbury Scheppes, replaced by Yule Catto; HBOS was sold, replaced by Cattles, Stagecoach was sold and replaced by William Hill, ICI was taken over and replaced with Premier Farnell, and Thus was taken over, the small proceeds being used to top up DS Smith. Anglo American had been bought as a new holding. There were various trimmings and reinvestment of dividends and proceeds during the year. Imperial Tobacco had a rights isue, the rights being sold, and United Utilities had a return of capital via B-shares, also sold. Trimmed shares included Imperial Tobacco, Compass, Premier Farnell, BAE Systems, BP., Shell B, National Grid, Kingfisher, Tesco, AstraZeneca and RSA, all through being overweight. Topped up were Kingfisher, Rentokil, HBOS, Cattles, Lloyds TSB, Marks & Spencer, Premier Foods, Trinity Mirror, DS Smith, William Hill and Yule Catto. I think that is exhaustive, having gone through several files to extract the information.
Some cash from dividends was withdrawn to cover our Golden Wedding celebrations during the year (about 3% of the starting value), and the value of the portfolio had fallen to 58% of the value at the end of 2007.
Study of the data will reveal which shares did well and which less well in relative terms. I leave it to the reader to draw his own conclusions, but the stalwarts are obvious.
TJH