BlackRock Commodities Income Investment Trust Plc - Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK COMMODITIES INCOME INVESTMENT TRUST plc (LEI:54930040ALEAVPMMDC31)
All information is at 30 November 2017 and unaudited.

Performance at month end with net income reinvested

	One month %	Three months %	Six  months %	One  year %	Three years %	Five years %
Net asset value	-1.6	-0.7	6.8	-3.3	3.9	-10.1
Share price	1.0	4.0	6.1	-4.4	-5.7	-15.3

Sources: Datastream, BlackRock

At month end
Net asset value – capital only:	75.07p
Net asset value cum income*:	76.92p
Share price:	75.00p
Discount to NAV (cum income):	2.5%
Net yield:	5.3%
Gearing - cum income:	3.1%
Total assets**:	£95.8m
Ordinary shares in issue:	118,768,000
Gearing range (as a % of net assets):	0-20%
Ongoing charges^:	1.4%

*Includes net revenue of 1.85p.

**Includes current year revenue.

^Calculated as a percentage of average net assets and using expenses, excluding any interest costs and excluding taxation for the year ended 30 November 2016.

Sector Analysis	% Total Assets		Country Analysis	% Total Assets
Diversified Mining	27.1		Global	57.8
Integrated Oil	23.1		USA	13.1
Exploration & Production	14.9		Canada	12.0
Copper	10.4		Latin America	5.2
Gold	8.5		Australia	4.8
Distribution	3.6		Europe	2.5
Silver	2.7		Africa	1.9
Oil Sands	1.9		Mali	1.3
Industrial Minerals	1.7		Net current assets	1.4
Oil Services	1.5			-----
Steel	1.5			100.0
Industrial Resources	1.1			=====
Diamonds	0.6
Net current assets	1.4
	-----
	100.0
	=====

Ten Largest Investments

Company	Region of Risk	% Total Assets
First Quantum Minerals*	Global	9.3
Rio Tinto	Global	6.7
BHP	Global	6.6
Royal Dutch Shell ‘B’	Global	6.1
Glencore	Global	5.0
Chevron	Global	4.7
Exxon Mobil	Global	4.1
Vale - ADS	Latin America	3.3
BP	Global	3.1
Anadarko Petroleum	USA	3.0

*The holding in First Quantum Minerals includes both an equity holding and a holding in several bonds.

Commenting on the markets, Olivia Markham and Tom Holl, representing the Investment Manager noted:

The Company’s NAV decreased by 1.6% during the month of November (in GBP terms with dividends reinvested and net of ongoing charges).

The performance of the energy sector was positive during the month, whilst the mining sector came under pressure. In the energy space, the oil price rallied on rising geopolitical risk with the crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, launching an anti-corruption operation which saw the arrest of over 40 people, including 11 princes and more than three dozen current and former ministers. Shortly thereafter, the prime-minister of Lebanon resigned from his post in a televised statement made from Saudi Arabia, whilst Venezuela announced a military general as the new leader of its state-owned energy company and the Oil Ministry. On the final day of the month OPEC, and non-OPEC producers led by Russia, agreed to extend oil output cuts until the end of 2018. These events combined, bolstered oil prices in November with Brent and West Texas International (WTI) finishing the month +3.6% and +5.6% higher at $64/barrel and $57/barrel respectively. The portfolio’s overweight to US exploration and production companies positively contributed to relative performance during the month

For the mining sector, following a period of strong economic data from China, Chinese manufacturing data was the weakest we have seen in five months, with the Caixin Manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index ('PMI') falling to 50.8 in November from a prior level of 51 in October. In addition, there were concerns around credit tightening in China during the month, as China’s financial regulators proposed sweeping rules to curb the risks in the country’s $15 trillion of asset management products. Against this backdrop, we saw a sell-off in mined commodities, following the strong performance we saw in the run up to LME (London Metal Exchange) week during October. Base metals came under pressure, with nickel, zinc, copper and aluminium decreasing by -9.8%, -4.4%, -1.2% and -5.0% respectively.  On the other hand, bulk commodities posted positive performance, with the price of iron ore bucking the negative trend and increasing by +17.1%. We continue to see attractive valuations across a number of the mining companies, in particularly the bulk commodity producers, who are generating very strong free cash flow allowing them to further reduce debt on the balance sheet and increase dividends to shareholders.

All data points in US dollar terms unless otherwise specified. Commodity price moves sourced from Thomson Reuters Datastream.

14 December 2017

ENDS

Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.uk/brci 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.

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