Fund Objective

The Fund's investment objective is to achieve the optimum overall return of capital and income through flexible global investment management.

View on Past Performance

Global equity markets had a difficult start to the year. Investors' appetite for risk declined amid weakening US economic data, mounting losses related to US sub-prime mortgages and the ongoing credit crunch. The fund outperformed the MSCI World Index in the quarter, more than recouping its losses versus the benchmark in 2007.The key contributors to performance were the fund's positioning in the financials sector, where we are emphasising quality banks and insurance stocks, and in the telecommunications sector.

Future Expectations

Ongoing uncertainty over the outlook for global economic growth suggests that the current olatile market environment may continue in the coming months. We are able to take full advantage by analysing over 15,000 global stocks every day.Fund turnover increased during the quarter as increased market volatility continued to create a large number of opportunities.In the past quarter we: increased the fund's exposure to the financials sector, maintained exposure to the telecommunications sector; added to Japanese autos and retained a preference for oil and gas stocks, which continue to rank highly on both value and quality criteria.

Fund Details