EquitiesJul 25 2014

F&C Managed Portfolio Trust grows thanks to UK mid-caps

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Peter Hewitt has praised the performance of property and UK mid cap holdings for boosting returns on his F&C Managed Portfolio Trust.

The trust is split into a growth and income portfolio and the two best performers in the growth portfolio were the TR Property Investment Trust, which rose 33 per cent and Schroder UK Mid Cap, run by Andy Brough and Rosemary Banyard, which saw a share price rise of 32 per cent.

“Property was a strongly performing asset class and this trust invests mainly in the shares of quoted property companies in the UK and Europe,” Mr Hewitt said.

“Underlying holdings, boosted by gearing, experienced strong asset value growth, and also a sharp narrowing of discounts or move to premiums.”

Mr Hewitt said not only was the Schroders trust “exposed to a strongly performing area of the market”, but the companies the managers chose to invest in “added value and the discount closed from 10 per cent to 5 per cent”, the manager said.

Mr Hewitt said the net asset value of the trust rose 9.3 per cent compared to a return of 8.9 per cent from the FTSE All-Share index benchmark.

The manager said though it was the “first year” since launch that the trust’s income shares had “lagged the benchmark” but stated “longer term performance continues to be very strong”.

Technology investments also performed strongly with RCM Technology Trust and Herald Investment Trust increasing by 23 per cent.

Mr Hewitt said he expected the UK to continue to grow in spite of an expected change in direction for interest rates. Similarly, he thinks the US will also grow, while at a slower pace.

But he said the eurozone was a “mixed bag”.