Key takeaways:
- UK equities have already, quietly, started recovering.
- A combination of valuations, takeovers and share buybacks reflect the unusual status of UK companies – sometimes attractive and sometimes underappreciated.
- To gain domestic exposure you need to look across the breadth of the UK market, not just the FTSE 100.
In her presentation titled ‘UK equities – are we finally getting there?’, Laura discussed her current view on the UK market and explains why she believes the trust’s approach will reward patient investors.
Discrete performance table HOT:
| Discrete year performance (%) | Share price (total return) | NAV (total return) |
| 30/9/2023 to 30/9/2024 | 17.5 | 9.6 |
| 30/9/2022 to 30/9/2023 | 1.9 | 1.8 |
| 30/9/2021 to 30/9/2022 | -29.5 | -28.7 |
| 30/9/2020 to 30/9/2021 | 64.8 | 60.4 |
| 30/9/2019 to 30/9/2020 | -1.9 | -5.3 |
All performance, cumulative growth and annual growth data is sourced from Morningstar.
Source: at 30/09/24. © 2024 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance does not predict future returns.
Discrete performance table LWI:
| Discrete year performance (%) | Share price (total return) | NAV (total return) |
| 30/9/2023 to 30/9/2024 | 18.3 | 16.3 |
| 30/9/2022 to 30/9/2023 | 13.9 | 17.1 |
| 30/9/2021 to 30/9/2022 | -16.4 | -14.8 |
| 30/9/2020 to 30/9/2021 | 53.3 | 51.0 |
| 30/9/2019 to 30/9/2020 | -24.6 | -24.8 |
All performance, cumulative growth and annual growth data is sourced from Morningstar.
Source: at 30/09/24. © 2024 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance does not predict future returns.
Glossary
Balance sheet – A financial statement that summarises a company’s assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity at a particular point in time. Each segment gives investors an idea as to what the company owns and owes, as well as the amount invested by shareholders. It is called a balance sheet because of the accounting equation: assets = liabilities + shareholders’ equity.
Cyclical stocks – Companies that sell discretionary consumer items (such as cars), or industries highly sensitive to changes in the economy (eg. mining).
Gearing – Gearing is a measure of a company’s debt relative to its equity, showing how far its operations are funded by lenders versus shareholders. Investment trusts: The effect of borrowing money for investment purposes (financial gearing). The amount a company can “gear” is the amount it can borrow in order to invest.
Growth stock – A growth stock is any share in a company that is anticipated to grow at a rate significantly above the average growth for the market. These stocks generally do not pay dividends. This is because the issuers of growth stocks are usually companies that want to reinvest any earnings they accrue in order to accelerate growth in the short term.
Magnificent 7 – The Magnificent Seven stocks are a group of high-performing and influential companies in the U.S. stock market: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Tesla.
Net asset value (NAV) – The total value of a fund’s (or company’s) assets less its liabilities.
Share buybacks – Where a company buys back their own shares from the market, thereby reducing the number of shares in circulation, with a consequent increase in the value of each remaining share. It increases the stake that existing shareholders have in the company, including the amount due from any future dividend payments. It typically signals the company’s optimism about the future and a possible undervaluation of the company’s equity.
