F&C's Paul Niven shakes up portfolio ahead of 'uncertain' H2

Discount widens to nearly 10%

The F&C Investment trust (FCIT) has failed to beat its benchmark in the first half of the year as its modest exposure to private equity and underweight positioning in megacaps hurt performance, but manager Paul Niven has made some portfolio changes ahead of H2.

In its half-year report for the six months to the end of June 2023, the £4.5bn trust posted a net asset value total return of 4.7%, while the FTSE All-World index gained 7.5% over the period.  FCIT's share price total return fell by 2.6% as the discount widened from 3% to 9.8% in the period, close to the widest it has been over the last five years. Manager Paul Niven said stock selection had been a detractor from performance, as was the allocation to private equity. The relative performance of the listed strategies was negatively affected by the underweight positions held in several o...