Fund Objective

The Trojan Investment Funds all have an absolute return objective and any comparisons against indices are for illustrative purposes only. The Trojan Income Fund is an equity biased fund that aims to provide growing levels of income that are in excess of the yield offered by the UK equity market.

View on Past Performance

The fund returned -2.7% during the month. Another dire month for stock markets. In fact, this was the worst month since the crash of 1987. The FTSE All Share index produced a return of -13.2%. During this dreadful time the Fund held up well. Although we take no pleasure in relative outperformance. We hope that fellow investors will recognise that amid such a broad sell off it is difficult to protect capital unless one held 100% cash and even that policy may not be without risk.The avoidance of mining exposure has helped avert greater pain in recent months. A number of stocks are beginning to hold up better as (hopefully) investors become more discerning about the likely survivors in the economic downturn. GlaxoSmithKline, National Grid, and Tesco were notable performers. Gold also held up well as other commodities floundered. In our view, gold is correctly being viewed as a store of value in uncertain times.We made one major change to the portfolio, deciding to sell the holding in Singapore dollars. This has made a healthy return in sterling terms since purchased late last year.

Future Expectations

Going forward, with equity valuations at lows not seen in our twenty years of experience, we must now begin to be more optimistic.

Fund Details