BLACKROCK NORTH AMERICAN INCOME TRUST plc (LEI: 549300WWOCXSC241W468)
All information is at 28 February 2018 and unaudited.

Performance at month end with net income reinvested

Source: BlackRock

¹ In line with the dividend policy announced in the Annual Report on 13 December 2017 of dividends amounting to 8.00p per share for the year ending 31 October 2018 and based on the share price as at close of business on 28 February 2018.

² Excluding 31,487,261 ordinary shares held in treasury.

³ Ongoing charges represent the management fee and all other operating expenses excluding interest as a % of average shareholders’ funds for the year ended 31 October 2017.

Tony DeSpirito, Franco Tapia and David Zhao, representing the Investment Manager, noted:

For the one-month period ended 28 February 2018, the Company’s NAV decreased by 1.7% while the share price decreased by 1.5% (all in sterling). The Company’s benchmark, the Russell 1000 Value Index, returned -1.7% for the period.

The largest contributor to relative performance was stock selection in the energy sector, most notably in the oil, gas & consumable fuels industry. The portfolio’s cash position, which averaged 5.5% during the month, also boosted relative performance. Other notable contributors included our underweight positions in the real estate and consumer staples sectors.

The largest detractor from relative performance was a combination of stock selection and allocation decisions in information technology. Notably, stock selection and an underweight to the semiconductors industry proved costly, as did stock selection in technology hardware, storage & peripherals. In financials, stock selection in the insurance and banks industries also weighed on relative returns. Lastly, stock selection in telecommunication services hurt relative performance during the month.

The portfolio’s option overwriting strategy contributed to absolute returns in February. This should be understood within the context of negative U.S. equity market returns (in U.S. dollar terms).

Transactions/Options

Transactions: Notable new buys in February included Danone SA and Devon Energy Corporation. Conversely, we eliminated our positions in Enbridge Inc., Invesco Ltd. and United Parcel Service, Inc.

Options:  As of 28 February 2018, the Company’s options exposure was 15.5% and the delta of the options was 91.3. 

Positioning
 

As of period end, the Company’s largest overweight positions relative to the benchmark were in the health care, information technology and financials sectors. The Company’s largest underweight positions relative to the benchmark were in the real estate, consumer discretionary and industrials sectors.

Source: BlackRock.

20 March 2018

Latest information is available by typing blackrock.co.uk/brna on the internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV terminal).  Neither the contents of the Manager’s website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Manager’s website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.