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Investment Companies Roundup – February 2020

Performance – After beginning the year in the ascendancy, helped by easing tensions between the US and Iran, the outbreak of coronavirus in China pulled the breaks on risk assets, particularly hitting Asian and resource funds. Significant selling has taken place in early February (not included in this roundup), following the end of the Chinese new year celebration. Out of the bottom 10 performers by net asset value

">NAV, seven were either Asian or resource-focused. Amongst the outperformers, New life-sciences fund,  had the third best NAV return behind  and . Manchester & London’s NAV return owed to good months for tech-based holdings, including Amazon and Alphabet;

Discounts/premiums – Before January, ’s discount had widened to a point where a lot of investors began to see value. Elsewhere, ’s share price has been increasing since Baillie Gifford took over the management contract from Edinburgh Partners. Several renewables funds came under attack (see the news section) from brokers, pulling down ‘s premium;

Money in and out – It was a quiet month of fundraising with no major placings;

Major news stories –  came under attack from brokers and  discussed the problems it was having with anaerobic digestion plants.