Fund Objective

The Fund's investment objective is to provide capital growth together with some income by investing in a broad range of investments including UK and overseas shares, Government bonds, and fixed interest securities.

View on Past Performance

The year-long credit turmoil continued in September with the collapse of Lehman Brothers. This prompted unprecedented actions from global governments to stabilise the markets. In this environment, global equity markets fell sharply, lead by Emerging Markets, Asia and Europe, all declining over 10%.Flight-to-safety and a strong demand for liquidity pushed yields down on government bonds, with the fall particularly pronounced at the short end of the curve.There was no change to asset allocation during the month of September with a neutral stance to equities and bonds being maintained. The Fund's exposure to equities, especially in Emerging Markets and Asia had a negative impact as both of these markets fell sharply. The Fund's slightly overweight exposure to global bonds had a positive impact as these markets rose.

Future Expectations

Since the announcement of the US government rescue plan, equities markets bounced slightly but this was short-lived; uncertainty and risk aversion is continuing to rise. Actions to ward off the excesses of the declines continue to be taken by governments around the world as numerous banks are taken into private ownership. Within equities we continue to favour Asian markets, due to their higher economic growth rates and reasonable valuations.

Fund Details