Dip in returns for AAM’s Murray Income

Edinburgh-based, Aberdeen Asset Management-run investment trust Murray Income, saw net asset value total return fall by one per cent in the six months to December 31, which beat the all-share index’s fall of two per cent.

Total revenue fell 7.2 per cent year-on-year, for the £550 million investment trust, mainly due to Standard Chartered’s interim dividend cut and last year’s special dividend at Compass Group.

The weakness of sterling against the dollar benefited about 30 per cent of its income streams.

Fund manager Charles Luke said Murray Income’s only holding in the bombed-out mining sector was BHP Billiton, which it had held onto, and it had benefited from being overweight in software with Sage and Microsoft both performing strongly.

Pearson, however, had been the “standout disappointment”.

On sales, he said: “We sold our position in Tesco given the lack of dividend yield, high debt burden and concerns over the development of the food retail industry from a competitive and structural standpoint.”