Fund Objective

The Fund's investment objective is to provide long term capital growth by matching the capital performance of the FTSE Japan Index.

View on Past Performance

Japanese equities faced their biggest drop since the beginning of the 1990s in a context of falling trading volume and high volatility. The credit crunch and fears over a systemic failure of the global banking system dominated events. Somewhat surprisingly, given the financial crisis, banks were among the best performing sectors, as they took stakes in the large US banks.

Future Expectations

Prevailing extreme market conditions do not support global equities and the Japanese market is no exception. Risk aversion continues to favour defensive sectors such as utilities. Current consensus earnings forecasts have not yet fully priced in the effect of the deterioration in the macroeconomic outlook. The market is likely to remain volatile.

Fund Details