Investment trusts with high exposure to the tech sector generally delivered stellar returns for investors in the first half of 2026, according to recent research published by the Association of Investment Companies (AIC).
In pure sector terms, the IT Technology and Technological Innovation sector shot the lights out in 2026, delivering an average total return of 50.5% to the end of June, according to Morningstar data.
This was almost 17 percentage points ahead of runner-up the IT Asia Pacific sector. However, it should be noted that this is a high-tech exposure market, with the MSIC AC Asia Pacific (a common benchmark in the sector) having a 38.1% weighting to technology.
The third best-performing sector of the bunch was global emerging markets, with the average trust up 31.4% this year. Emerging markets have had a fantastic performance year to date, driven primarily by Taiwan and Korea, which are up 65.5% and 105% respectively according to data from FE fundinfo.
Annabel Brodie-Smith, communications director at the AIC, said: “The historic boom in AI spending continued to drive returns in the first half of 2026, most obviously in the technology sector, but also in Asia and emerging markets where some of the world’s largest AI hardware and microchip manufacturers are based.”
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For example, three of the top ten trusts in the first half of the year – Polar Capital Technology, Manchester & London and Allianz Technology Trust, were technology-focused strategies.
Polar Capital Technology was the best of this bunch, with a 53.7% return placing it in the top three investment trusts in H1 2026.
Run by an experienced team including Ben Rogoff, Fatima Lu and Nick Evans, the fund aims to maximise long-term growth by investing in a portfolio of tech companies.
Currently, it favours exposure to semiconductors, with around 40% of the portfolio in this sector. Its second sector exposure is just 10% by comparison, according to the fund’s May factsheet.
Two strategies from the Asia Pacific and Asia Pacific Equity Income sectors also appeared (Pacific Horizon and JPMorgan Asia Growth and Income). Pacific Horizon rose 50% in the first half of the year, while the JPMorgan strategy was up 45.7%.
In the EM sector, Fidelity Emerging Markets and Templeton Emerging Markets produced 43.5% and 42.9% returns, respectively.
See also: Fidelity: Why the discount on emerging markets is unjustified
That said, investors would not have gotten the best performance this year from a tech trust. Instead, the top performer in the first half of the year went to Baker Steel Resources, a commodities and natural resources closed-end fund, which rose 65.2%.
Currently, the portfolio is investing primarily in Tungsten (23%), Coking coal (20%), Cement (18%) and gold (15%).
Strong performance from some of their tungsten and metal miners in the US was a tailwind in the recent quarter as prices rose, the factsheet noted.
However, the factsheet also stated: “At a macro level, the war in the Middle East is severely disrupting trade flows, adding increased volatility to the market.
“How long these conditions will continue, and what their lasting effects on global growth and equity markets could be, is unclear.”
Second place on the list went to Seraphim Space Investment Trust, which rose 56.5% so far this year. Space economy stocks have been a major topic this year, with SpaceX’s IPO generating record interest despite the high asking price.
See also: Knacke’s money maps: SpaceX and AI’s search for cheap energy
Seraphim has performed generally well since inception, with a top-quartile performance in the IT Growth Capital sector over the past one and three years, according to data from FE fundinfo. Over the past three years, it has delivered a 624% total return.
Baillie Gifford’s Schiehallion fund rounded out the list with a 39.7% H1 return.
