Among the most viewed trusts on Morningstar.co.uk were portfolios such as Neil Woodford’s Edinburgh Investment Trust, Jupiter European Opportunities run by Alexander Darwell and Scottish Oriental managed by Angus Tulloch.
“A common theme of the most frequently viewed investment trusts in the last quarter was depth of expertise among the management,” Jackie Beard the rating agency’s head of investment trust research, said.
Another theme was income. The majority of funds within the top 10 pay a decent yield to shareholders and make good use of the revenue reserve account, a key attraction of the investment trust structure, she noted. “There has also been a fair degree of interest in trusts that focus on small-cap stocks—another benefit of the structure as it allows managers to dip down the market-cap scale and buy less-liquid stocks, without fear of redemption orders.”
The most searched closed-ended funds span regions and all bar one, Scottish Mortgage, have been trading at premiums to their respective NAVs, Beard added.
Earlier this month Morningstar revealed the most searched open-ended funds on its service. As with investment trusts there was a bias among investors to income-producing vehicles but also those run by well-known managers. One new addition to the open-ended top 10 list over the second quarter was Legg Mason Japan Equity.
10 Most Searched for Investment Trusts in Q2
Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies Investment Trust
The City of London Investment Trust
Murray International Trust
Edinburgh Investment Trust
Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust
Perpetual Income and Growth Investment Trust
Personal Assets Trust
Jupiter European Opportunities Trust
Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies Trust
