OUR PORTFOLIO

The view from our Investment Manager, 31 December 2017

Over the final quarter of 2017, higher inflation figures in the UK led the Bank of England to implement its first interest rate rise in over a decade and, as was widely expected, rising growth and falling unemployment figures in the US led the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates for the third time in 2017 whilst simultaneously upgrading growth and inflation outlooks for the year ahead. Global equity markets continued to perform strongly, as the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) returned 5.0% in Pounds Sterling terms.

The Trust’s total shareholder return, Net Asset Value (NAV) total return and equity portfolio return over the quarter were 4.7%, 4.3% and 3.8% respectively, underperforming the MSCI ACWI over the same period. The portfolio has slight overweight exposure to the Eurozone and UK which has detracted from performance as other economies, in particular Asia-Pacific and the US, outperformed when measured in Pounds Sterling. From a sector perspective, managers’ stock selection decisions in Utilities, Industrials and Consumer Discretionary also detracted. Since 1 April 2017, the Trust’s equity portfolio has returned 9.8% and outperformed the MSCI ACWI by approximately 2.2%, with stock selection remaining the main driver of performance.

Read our Investment Manager’s report for more on our portfolio’s performance over the past month.