Fund Objective

The Schroder Institutional UK Equity Fund (No.2)'s principal investment objective is to seek to achieve capital growth through investment in UK equities either directly,or in the case of certain specialised areas such as smaller companies,via other collective investment schemes.

View on Past Performance

The UK market ended flat following a turbulent quarter with investor confidence waning on generally disappointing US economic news and further signs of fallout from the 'credit crunch'. The portfolio outperformed the benchmark strongly with positive contributions from stock selection in financials, food producers and oil and gas sectors.The main contributors to performance include BG Group, ICAP, Unilever, Standard Chartered and Reuters. The portfolio also benefited from underweight positions in sectors exposed to a slowing UK economy, specifically, general retailers, real estate and housebuilders.

Future Expectations

The UK equity market is likely to see high levels of volatility in 2008. We expect to see slowing economic activity. More monetary policy intervention may be required, especially if inter-bank lending rates remain high. However, a number of consumer related stocks are reaching attractive levels, particularly as we believe the Bank of England will cut rates again.We continue to look for companies that can offer sustainable profits growth and have strong balance sheets. Support for the UK equity market remains, such as the ongoing take-over activity (now driven by corporate buyers, rather than private equity) but concerns persist that profits forecasts for 2008 may be too high.

Fund Details