Schroder UK Growth Fund underperformed its benchmark by six percentage points in the year to April 30, according to the company’s annual report.
The investment trust’s shares rose 13.9 per cent compared with the FTSE All-Share benchmark of 20.1 per cent. It increased its net asset value by 17.5 per cent.
Carolan Dobson, the group’s new chairman, said that while it had been a good period to be a shareholder, it had been a difficult period for active stock pickers who were trying to outperform the index “as unpredictable political developments heavily influenced individual stock performance”.
“Our company's performance did not match that of the market,” she said.
The company declared a second interim dividend of 2.7p a share. Total dividends for the year are up 3.8 per cent to 5.2p a share, giving a yield of 3.1 per cent as at the end of July.
The company said that investment trusts with UK portfolios were struggling because of Brexit.
“Discounts for investment trusts specialising in investing in the shares of UK companies remain at the widest they have been for the last five years partly on uncertainty about the impact on the UK economy of the UK's decision to leave the EU,” Ms Dobson said.
The company said it would continue to “focus on finding companies with good earnings prospects that are underappreciated by the market".
“Perhaps the most surprising feature of the UK stock market over the last year is how well it has performed despite the wrenching changes in the political environment at home and abroad.
"Companies with international businesses have clearly benefited from sterling's fall and the rise in the stock market has been concentrated into certain areas,” she added.
