Stock markets rallied strongly in April as further significant write-offs by UBS and massive rights issues by HBOS and RBS were taken as signals that the credit crunch could be managed. In the US the first quarter results on Wall Street were not as bad as feared. The fund failed to bounce as strongly as market indices, rising 0.6% while the IMA Global Growth sector rose 5.4%, ranking it 199 among its peer group of 201 funds this month.The FTSE 100 index of larger UK companies produced a total return of 7.1% (dividends reinvested) while the corresponding figure for the FTSE All Share total return index - a broader measure of the UK market - rose 6.3%. LargeCap beat SmallCap as the latter rose 2.9%. Overseas the US market registered a 5.2% return, Tokyo 7.0% and the Far East excluding Japan 8.6%.The Dollar firmed 0.4% to £/$ 1.98 but the Yen retreated 4.4% to 207 (197.8) surrendering the gains made in March but still having appreciated 15.5% year-on-year. The Euro ended the month worth 78.6p (79.7p) a fall of 1.4%.Asset performance this month was hit by the weakness of the Yen, with a resulting fall in the value of Japan Opportunities II our Japanese residential play and largest by far holding. This has been a play on Yen strength but caused a 50 bp fall in the NAV in April.Alpha Tiger a property company invested in India was another to fall in April despite an upbeat presentation to investors in London. The illiquid stock suffered from small but steady selling by momentum investors. Brixton Estates fell on poor IPD figures during the month, but the main cause of our underperformance in April was that despite gains in Blackrock World Mining and Templeton Emerging Markets the fund 's specialist funds did not participate fully in the wider market rally.
