Fund Objective

To achieve long term capital growth from a portfolio primarily made up of the shares of UK companies. The Fund will have a blend of investments in larger, medium and smaller sized companies.

View on Past Performance

The fund outperformed its benchmark over the quarter. Performance was driven mainly by a lack of exposure to the mining sector, as the decline in metal prices weighed upon these shares. An overweight in media firms, notably publishers Reed Elsevier and Pearson, also contributed to returns. Both these firms expressed confidence about meeting full-year targets, as their largely non-financial customer base continued to show resilience.Growth prospects also drove returns from holdings in the support services sector, notably Premier Farnell. A position in Provident Financial provided further support. Driven by growth at its core consumer credit division, this specialist lender reported solid results, as its mainstream banking peers tightened their lending criteria.Conversely, an underweight in larger banks such as HSBC and Barclays hurt relative performance, as investors perceived them to be better placed to survive the current turmoil. A holding in HBOS also detracted.

Fund Details