Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK SMALLER COMPANIES TRUST PLC All information is at 30 November 2008 and unaudited. Performance at month end is calculated on a capital only basis One Three One Three Five Month Months Year Years Years Net asset value -7.1% -41.3% -45.1% -26.2% 9.6% Share price -13.4% -48.7% -50.8% -37.7% -0.3% HGSC ex Inv Trust + AIM* -5.8% -39.2% -50.6% -45.5% -31.2% Sources: BlackRock and Datastream *With effect from 1 September 2007 the Hoare Govett Smaller Companies plus AIM (ex Investment Companies) Index replaced the FTSE SmallCap Index (ex Investment Companies) as the Company's benchmark. For three year and five year periods above the index has been blended to reflect this. At month end Net asset value Capital only(debt at par value): 229.37p Net asset value Capital only(debt at fair value): 223.88p Net asset value incl Income(debt at par value): 233.41p** Net asset value incl Income(debt at fair value): 227.92p** Share price: 162.00p Discount to Capital only NAV(debt at par value): -29.37% Discount to Capital only NAV(debt at fair value): -27.64% Net yield: 3.83% Total assets: £128.02m^ Gearing incl. income: 13.6% Ordinary shares in issue: 48,509,708^^ **includes net revenue of 4.04p ^includes current year revenue ^^excludes 1,483,815 shares held in treasury Ten Largest Sector Weightings % of total assets Support Services 16.1 Financial Services 9.9 Aerospace & Defence 8.7 Software & Computer Services 8.4 Industrial Engineering 7.6 Oil & Gas Producers 5.9 Electronic & Electrical Equipment 5.3 Industrial Metals & Mining 4.8 Health Care Equipment & Services 4.8 Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 4.2 ---- Total 75.7 ==== Ten Largest Equity Investments (in alphabetical order) Company Brewin Dolphin Holdings Chemring Group Connaught Dechra Pharmaceuticals Mouchel Rathbone Brothers Rotork Spirax-Sarco Engineering Ultra Electronics Holdings Victrex Commenting on the markets, Mike Prentis, representing the Investment Manager noted: November was a poor month with the Company's NAV falling by 7.1%, whilst the benchmark index fell by 5.8%. By way of comparison the FTSE 100 Index fell by 2.0%. Stockmarket conditions continued to be affected by nervousness about the state of the world economy; resources prices have fallen further. Gearing again contributed to relative underperformance during the month, accounting for about half of our underperformance relative to the benchmark. We have trimmed borrowings in recent weeks and are no longer using our overdraft facility. At the portfolio level the worst relative performers during the month were Encore Oil, Senior and Aveva. Encore Oil drilled the Esmond gas storage evaluation well which was expected to confirm that this depleted gas reservoir would be a suitable large scale gas storage project. Unfortunately, the well pointed to greater complexity than expected and although it is not certain that Esmond would not be a suitable gas storage project, the shares fell 71% during the month. Subsequently, Encore has had a light oil find, but smallcap exploration companies have fallen firmly out of favour with the falling oil price and this news had minimal impact on the share price. Senior shares fell 40% despite the Boeing strike being called off. Senior also supplies the automotive sector which is very weak. Aveva shares fell 33% despite good interims showing earnings up 66%; the market is concerned that its exposure to shipping, oil & gas and power sectors will lead to lower initial license fees during 2009. Although Aveva have yet to see this, it does remain probable. We continue to see Aveva as a world class company and are taking a medium term view. Earnings downgrades are likely although much of this is probably now in the price; medium term we expect Aveva shares to be much higher. Aveva has a very strong balance sheet. In relative terms, the best stock contributions came from Chemring, Connaught, Babcock International and Spirax-Sarco, all core holdings. Chemring put out a positive pre-close statement and Babcock announced good interims. Connaught, like Chemring and Babcock, has excellent revenue visibility. Spirax-Sarco management have demonstrated their confidence by regular share buybacks. New holdings in the month included Chaucer and JKX Oil & Gas; 0.5% of the portfolio was put into each holding. We know both of these companies well and see considerable value in each at current levels. The Chaucer purchase follows our purchases of BRIT and Hiscox over the last few months. Insurance rates look to be starting to firm up and we met with JKX management. The shares have been very weak, but JKX has growing gas volumes and it is benefiting from a higher gas price despite the fall in the oil price. We reduced the size of a number of holdings and sold the remainder of our holding in Axon. Overall, our portfolio remains defensively positioned. Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.uk/its on the internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV terminal). 15 December 2008
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