Fund Objective

The investment objective of this fund is to achieve capital growth in the long-term by investing in a diversified global portfolio of companies. The Halifax International Growth Life and Pension funds invest directly into the Halifax International Growth OEIC.

View on Past Performance

Global equity markets endured another negative month, with most equity markets recording falls in excess of 10% in local currency terms. The bulk of these falls took place in the first third of the month, as the concerns about the fragility of the banking system continued from September.Despite the US Congress passing a revised financial bailout package, shares continued to suffer severe falls in the early part of the month, with the S&P 500 and the MSCI Emerging Markets index suffering their worst week ever, falling 18% and 20% respectively. In the UK, the FTSE 100 closed below 4,000 for the first time in five years, registering the worst week since 1987. The MSCI World index lost 10.6% in sterling, total return terms.We continued to educe risk in the portfolio, selling companies with risks to earnings and adding to more defensive names, including large caps with strong balance sheets and generous dividend yields, which have the ability to weather the current financial storm.This meant adding to oil major BP, upermarket giant Tesco, France Telecom and Microsoft. We also increased our exposure to Kimberly Clark, which is a major beneficiary of falling materials and energy prices, and boosted our stake in Japanese mobile phone operator KDDI.

Future Expectations

We see an improving operating environment, in which the company's strong new product range and cost structure leave it well positioned to thrive, as confirmed by solid second-quarter results. By contrast, we sold industrials such as the Curtiss-Wright group, whose business we expect to come under pressure as a result of the economic slowdown.

Fund Details