Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK SMALLER COMPANIES TRUST plc All information is at 31 October 2010 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 6.3% 23.9% 46.6% 9.6% 79.2% Share price 6.5% 23.2% 51.4% 8.9% 75.1% HGSC ex Inv Trust + AIM* 3.4% 11.9% 20.5% -15.9% 7.3% 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 the five year period the above index has been blended to reflect this. At month end Net asset value Capital only (debt at par value): 525.43p Net asset value Capital only (debt at fair value): 521.19p Net asset value incl. Income (debt at par value): 530.20p** Net asset value incl. Income (debt at fair value): 525.96p** Share price: 428.50p Discount to Capital only NAV (debt at par value): 18.4% Discount to Capital only NAV (debt at fair value): 17.8% Net yield: 1.4% Total assets: £275.2m^ Gearing incl. Income: 8.5% Ordinary shares in issue: 47,879,792^^ **includes net revenue of 4.77p. ^includes current year revenue. ^^excludes 2,113,731 shares held in treasury. Ten Largest Sector Weightings % of Total Assets Industrial Metals & Mining 12.0 Software & Computer Services 10.0 Electronic & Electrical Equipment 9.0 Oil & Gas Producers 8.7 Financial Services 8.1 Support Services 7.5 Industrial Engineering 6.7 Media 5.6 Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 4.9 Technology Hardware & Equipment 4.4 ---- Total 76.9 ==== Ten Largest Equity Investments (in alphabetical order) Company Abcam Group Aveva Group City of London Investment Group Domino Printing Sciences Eastern Platinum Fidessa group Hutchison China Meditech IQE Spirax-Sarco Engineering Western Coal Commenting on the markets, Mike Prentis, representing the Investment Manager noted: During October the Company's NAV per share rose by 6.3% in capital only terms; this was ahead of the benchmark which rose by 3.4%. The FTSE 100 Index rose by 2.3%. Our outperformance was mainly derived from stock selection but asset allocation and gearing also contributed. From a stock point of view, two holdings contributed more than 0.25% each to relative outperformance, Hutchison China Meditech and City of London Investment Group. Hutchison China Meditech had been our one poor performer in September, although there had been no newsflow. October was also a month of no news for the stock, but the share price did make up for its weak performance in September. City of London Investment Group announced that assets under management had increased 30% since its 31 May year end, helped by stronger emerging markets indices. It also moved its listing from AIM to the Official List. Pleasingly, no one holding had a significant negative impact on the relative performance of the portfolio during the month. We sold our holding in Bluebay Asset Management following a bid by Royal Bank of Canada. Our holding in Bluebay had only been acquired in September, so we were very surprised to see a bid emerge. We also sold our holding in Intec Telecom which had received a bid from CSG of the US. We took new holdings in TT Electronics and New Britain Palm Oil. TT Electronics supplies sensors and other components mainly into automotive and industrial markets globally. New management have reshaped the business and are driving up margins from low levels. We feel the business is still undervalued and it is trading well. New Britain Palm Oil is a significant producer of palm oil based in the Pacific. We had no previous exposure to soft commodities and with the palm oil price moving up sharply, as have many soft commodity prices, we felt it appropriate to make a small investment. 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 November 2010
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