Price and Performance

Over February, the Trust’s total shareholder return, NAV total return and equity portfolio returned 1.5%, 1.6% and 1.4% respectively. The benchmark MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) returned 1.6% over the same period.

Equity markets continued to rise in February, buoyed by above-average US fourth quarter economic growth data, the conclusion of a better-than-expected US earnings season, and the Fed’s dovish tone on interest rate hikes. Ongoing trade tensions between the US and China, whilst by no means resolved, saw negotiations make sufficient progress to avoid an increase in tariffs scheduled for 1 March. In the UK and Europe, political uncertainty continued to weigh on regional equity markets, however both regions closed out the month posting positive returns.

The Trust’s stock pickers continued to find new and interesting ideas to add to their portfolios over the month. A new position was established in ServiceNow, a fast growing software vendor of applications that are focused on defining, structuring and automating the flow of work across the enterprise while simultaneously ridding organizations of dependence on out-of-date spreadsheets and disparate email chains. The Trust’s position in Chinese technology Holdings Company Tencent was sold over the course of the month as pricing reached a level that meant the stock picker that owned it felt there were more attractively priced opportunities elsewhere.

New entrants to the top 20 holdings in February were US healthcare company Abbott Laboratories and US technology and specialty materials company Celanese, as a result of security purchases and relative performance respectively. These holdings replaced Londonbased global professional intermediaries firm TP ICAP and US retail and healthcare company CVS Caremark, exiting the top 20 as a result of security sales and relative performance respectively.