Fund Objective

To achieve long term capital growth by investing primarily in securities of companies quoted in Japan with the power to invest up to 15% of the trust in other parts of the Pacific region.

View on Past Performance

The market traded down in local terms in August with the MSCI Japan index falling 3.6%, but up in sterling terms as the yen strengthened against sterling. Renewed concerns over banking and real estate sectors undermined the market. The fund outperformed its sector average returning 3.0% over the month.* Stocks including Inpex; an upstream oil and gas firm and Kao; a household goods company added particular value.

Future Expectations

In the short term visibility remains low. However, we expect rotation from the better performing sectors into more oversold sectors, particularly financials. External events remain highly influential. We remain overweight the broader financial sector given its attractive valuations and the largely unchanged expectation for robust earnings longer term. We have cut our position among the more defensive stocks given their recent outperformance. As the summer period finishes we anticipate a market bounce.

Fund Details