Fund Objective

The Fund aims to provide long-term capital growth.

View on Past Performance

Reflecting our cautious assessment of the outlook from here we sought to temper our exposure to risk across the portfolio.At the geographical level we reduced our exposure to Asia Pacific and the Emerging Markets - whilst domestic growth remains robust in both areas we are concerned over the potential impact of the slowdown within developed markets. We have however increased our Japan weighting - valuations look compelling compared to other markets and the credit crisis has not been felt to the same extent as elsewhere.Europe has been increased through the F&C European Growth & Income Fund - its bias towards robust and cash generative companies placing it in a good position to weather current difficulties.

Future Expectations

More broadly we continue to favour large caps and have sold our holding in US Smaller Companies. These theme continues into the UK where we have repositioned our exposure towards funds with a large cap bias.

Fund Details