Dividend still up despite underprefomance at Edinburgh Investment Trust

Edinburgh Investment Trust underperformed its benchmark, the FTSE All-Share, in the six months to the end of September, latest results have shown.

The £1.5 billion trust managed by Invesco Asset Management’s Mark Barnett, made a net asset value total return of 0.3 per cent against the market’s 3.6 per cent.

Mr Barnett said his investments in Provident Financial, which issued a profit warning in August, and tobacco companies Altria, British American Tobacco (BAT), Imperial Brands and Reynolds American detracted from the trust’s performance.

BAT is the portfolio’s largest holding, accounting for 7.6 per cent of the total. Imperial Brands also sits within Mr Barnett’s top 10.

Despite the underperformance, the trust said investors will receive a marginally improved first interim dividend for the year to March 2018 of 5.8p. This compares to last year’s first interim payment of 5.4p.

Mr Barnett attributed the trust’s performance to “the turbulent political environment and the improving global economy”, which saw the FTSE 100 reach a record high in June only for “growing tensions between the United States of America and North Korea” to lead to “nervousness in global equity markets”.