Over the month investment trusts were down on average 5.4%, compared to 6.9% for the FTSE All Share, according to Winterflood Investment Trusts.
For the year to date the sector is also ahead, down 4.8% compared with a decline of 6.2% for the wider market.
During August the sector average discount tightened from 7.6% at the start of the month to sit at 7.1% by the month end.
This is what Winterflood attributes to the better-than-market performance, along with the fact the sector is generally underweight banks, which had a rough ride during the market sell off.
James Brown, analyst at Winterflood, said: "Historically there has been a strong correlation between movements in the sector avearage discount for investment trusts and the market. Intuitively this makes sense, as the market rises, so demand tends to increase, which is reflected in tighter discounts.
"However, this relationship appears to have broken down this year. Despite volatile market conditions and a sharp sell-off in August the average discount tightened."
This average excludes private equity, hedge funds and direct property funds because they are regarded as alternative asset classes.
Brown said that if this current market volatility continues he expects discounts to widen again, and if they follow the pattern they did during late 2008’s volatile market, discounts could hit 10-11%.
