Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK SMALLER COMPANIES TRUST plc

All information is at 30 April 2011 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              4.2%      3.6%       45.9%       51.5%      65.2%     
Share price                 -2.4%     -2.0%       45.9%       55.1%      58.1%     
HGSC ex Inv Trust + AIM*     3.5%      3.2%       20.0%       14.3%       3.3%      
 
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):           629.62p           
Net asset value Capital only (debt at fair value):          625.39p           
Net asset value incl. Income (debt at par value):           635.98p**         
Net asset value incl. Income (debt at fair value):          631.75p**         
Share price:                                                521.00p           
Discount to Capital only NAV (debt at par value):           17.2%             
Discount to Capital only NAV (debt at fair value):          16.7%             
Net yield:                                                  1.1%              
Total assets:                                               £331.8m^          
Gearing incl. Income:                                       8.8%              
Ordinary shares in issue:                                   47,879,792^^      

**includes net revenue of 6.36p.
^includes current year revenue.
^^excludes 2,113,731 shares held in treasury.
 
Ten Largest Sector                                                         
Weightings                                                % of Total Assets
                                                                           
Software & Computer Services                                            9.5
Support Services                                                        9.2
Financial Services                                                      9.0
Electronic & Electrical Equipment                                       8.5
Oil & Gas Producers                                                     7.3
Industrial Metals & Mining                                              7.1
Industrial Engineering                                                  5.8
Media                                                                   5.8
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology                                         4.6
Travel & Leisure                                                        4.5
                                                                       ----
Total                                                                  71.3
                                                                       ====

Ten Largest Equity Investments (in alphabetical order)

Company

Abcam Group
Aveva Group
City of London Investment Group
Domino Printing Sciences
Fidessa group
Hargreaves Services
Hutchison China Meditech
ITE Group
Oxford Instruments
Spirax-Sarco Engineering

Commenting on the markets, Mike Prentis, representing the Investment Manager
noted:

During April the Company's NAV per share rose by 4.2% on a capital only basis,
slightly ahead of the benchmark index which rose by 3.5%. The FTSE 100 Index
rose by 2.7%.

The largest contributor to relative outperformance during the month was Blinkx.
Blinkx announced that revenues for its year to 31 March 2011 were up 90% on the
previous year. Given its high gross margins we expect Blinkx to be increasingly
profitable and cash generative.

The only significant negative contributor to relative performance during the
month was our holding in Alterian. This had a profit warning. It is still a
fairly early stage software company and license fees can be lumpy and are often
signed close to the year end. Alterian failed to sign the level of licences the
market had expected and the Chief Executive resigned. Over the month the shares
fell 38%. Although not a large holding this reduced relative performance by
0.30%.

We did make a few changes to the portfolio during the month. We are
significantly overweight engineering and electronics companies and decided to
sell one of these. We sold our holding in Cookson. Cookson is no longer in our
benchmark and we prefer holdings such as Spirax-Sarco, Oxford Instruments and
Renishaw which remain large holdings. We also trimmed a few holdings where we
felt valuations were looking slightly full.

We added several new holdings: International Personal Finance, Close Brothers
and Dunelm. International Personal Finance supplies home credit in developing
markets. It operates in Central Europe and Mexico and has 2.2 million customers
typically borrowing small sums for periods of up to a year. Q1 2011 results
were well received, helped by higher lending and lower impairments. We see this
as an interesting growth business. Close Brothers has three operating
divisions: Banking, Securities and Asset Management. The banking business is
trading well, helped by competition being less active. Winterflood Securities
is the main part of the securities trading division. It too is gaining market
share. Asset Management has traded less well but management are committed to
delivering much improved performance. Overall, the shares are sensibly valued
and backed up by a 5% yield. Dunelm supplies soft furnishings and homewares
through its 97 stores across the UK. It adopts a distinct value approach and
has a large range of products to choose from, something to appeal to all
budgets. Its growth has been financed entirely through its own cash flows since
the 1970s. We have held good meetings with the management of each of these
companies in the last few months.


17 May 2011

ENDS

Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.uk/its on the
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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.