Fund Objective

Aims to provide capital growth mainly through investment in a spread of authorised unit trusts and/or authorised companies selected from those available in the whole market.

View on Past Performance

After a strong upward move in the first quarter, the equity market rally slowed in April. The US and UK equity markets posted modest gains, with the S&P 500 and the FTSE All Share rising by 1.2% and 0.9% respectively. European equity markets were less well placed, with the DJ Eurostoxx flat on the month.After hitting new multi-year highs at the beginning of April, the Japanese equity market struggled to make headway on concern over the impact of rising fuel costs and the prospect of higher interest rates. By month end, Japan's Topix Index had dropped by 0.7%. Asian and emerging equity markets outperformed their developed peers during April as political concerns abated and higher commodity prices fuelled gains in the mining and mineral sectors.The fund returned 0.6% during April, which was slightly behind the average IMA Active Managed fund return of 0.8%. Please remember that past performance is not a guide to future performance. Our overweight position in overseas equities and resulting underweight in UK equities generally hindered performance this month, as strength in sterling reduced returns on overseas markets. On the positive side, within global equities we are overweight Europe and this market performed better than most others.At the beginning of the month the funds of funds became Non-Ucits Retail Schemes, a new regulatory structure that allows us greater flexibility in terms of the types of funds we can invest in; we will be looking to exploit this flexibility on an opportunistic basis over coming months. As a result we have recently been looking at a wide range of potential investments, ranging from secured loans to new investment trust launches.During the month we sold our holdings in Schroder Tokyo and the MSCI Japan Ishare, switching the proceeds into new positions in Thames River Japan and CF Morant Wright Japan, and topping up our holding in Martin Currie Japan Alpha. We also reduced our holding in Prudential North American and initiated a position in AXA Framlington NetNet.

Future Expectations

Developments in the global economy could scarcely have been better than they've been this year. Even long term bears, who thought it inevitable that global imbalances would be corrected by a major slow down in the US, acknowledge that higher growth rates outside the US allied to a modest US slowdown may do to the trick. Paradoxically, just as diehard bears turn bullish, we are becoming a little less sanguine.Rapid economic growth is the order of the day, and with few signs of a slowdown in sight, we will continue to endeavour to make money while the sun shines. However, we are cognisant of the risks that come in the wake of such rapid growth. In particular, it usually brings higher real yields and rising inflation expectations. We are into a third year of rapid growth, and bond markets are waking up to the possibility that interest rates are too low.A continued sell-off there may be positive for equities in the short run. In the medium term, it will bring more challenging conditions.

Fund Details