Fund Objective

The fund aims to produce a rising income with capital growth from a portfolio primarily made up of investments in the UK including ordinary shares, convertibles and fixed interest securities.

View on Past Performance

Although the equity market only fell slightly in November, there were signs of more difficult conditions to come as companies began to set out their expectations for 2014 and beyond. It has been a testing period for the portfolio. After the political storm around energy prices that engulfed Centrica and SSE, issues at RSA impacted performance in November.In November, we continued to add to holdings in 3i, BP, GlaxoSmithKline & HSBC. Over the past five years, larger stocks have generally been neglected in the enthusiasm for smaller and medium-sized companies. As a result, returns have been pedestrian.Their valuations are modest and, despite their dividends, are seen as being dull and 'too big to dance'. We also added to Novartis, whose change in attitude towards growth and capital allocation is pleasing investors. We sold the remainder of our holding in BAT.

Fund Details