Fund Objective

To provide long term capital growth.

View on Past Performance

Japanese equities had another weak month in August. A series of declines caused the MSCI Japan Small Caps index to fall by 4.02% over the month, in local currency terms. A Reuters survey revealed, perhaps unsurprisingly, that Japanese individual investors became more pessimistic about the stock market in August. It showed that investors were worried by further signs of economic slowdown and an increase in profit warnings.Given the current climate, our stock selection process has become increasingly discerning and we continue to adjust our attitude to risk in line with market conditions.The Fund performed below its benchmark in August, with the largest impact on performance coming from large overweight positions in Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group & Sumitomo Heavy Industry. Both assets underperformed the index by some margin. Other stocks to impact performance included Toyota Motor Corp and Murata Manfacturing which both returned well ahead of the index.

Fund Details