The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) reports that income focused trusts feature highly among the 20 most viewed investment trusts on its website over the first quarter. Six were in income sectors while the list also featured 13 members of the IC Top 100 Funds, including BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) which has an attractive yield of 4.57 per cent. The AIC says that user data from its website, www.theaic.co.uk, is a good reflection of which companies and sectors have been interesting investors.
Five of the most viewed trusts were in the UK Equity Income sector and include IC Top 100 Fund City of London Investment Trust (CTY), Finsbury Growth and Income Trust (FGT), Edinburgh Investment Trust (EDIN) and Perpetual Income & Growth (PLI). Perpetual Income & Growth is a new entrant to the top 20 this year and the AIC said this may be because of its attractive yield of 3.16 per cent and strong performance, as well as its manager Mark Barnett's higher profile at Invesco. Mr Barnett has been appointed as successor to star manager Neil Woodford on a number of funds including Edinburgh Investment Trust.
"Many of the most viewed AIC members are also dividend heroes, those investment companies with the longest consecutive dividend track records, reflecting investor demand for income," said the AIC. "The fourth most viewed company profile is that of City of London, which recently announced 47 years of dividend increases, and Temple Bar (TMPL), a company with 30 years of dividend increases. Other dividend heroes in the most viewed list, include Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust (FRCL) which has increased its dividend for 43 years and Witan Investment Trust (WTAN) which has increased it for 39 years.
Click here to see the dividend heroes list
"It is also interesting to see Foreign & Colonial and Witan make the top 20 most viewed companies this year - neither featured in the top 20 in the first quarter of 2013 - highlighting the attraction of these large, diversified, retail dominated investment companies."
These are the types of trust predicted to do well following the Retail Distribution Review (RDR), which has increased wealth manager and self directed investor interest in investment trusts (see our big theme on this).
IC Top 100 Fund Murray International (MYI), a Global Equity Income trust, and Scottish Mortgage (SMT) in the Global sector and also an IC Top 100 Fund, remain the first and second most viewed companies in the first quarter for the second year running. The AIC says it reflects the sustained popularity of these companies, and the income and global sectors.
Top 20 most viewed AIC members from 1 January to 31 March 2014
| Ranking | Trust | Yield (%) | AIC sector |
| 1 | Murray International* | 4.02 | Global Equity Income |
| 2 | Scottish Mortgage* | 1.43 | Global |
| 3 | Finsbury Growth & Income* | 2.15 | UK Equity Income |
| 4 | City of London* | 3.96 | UK Equity Income |
| 5 | RIT Capital Partners* | 2.27 | Global |
| 6 | Alliance Trust | 2.2 | Global |
| 7 | Temple Bar | 3.19 | UK Equity Income |
| 8 | Edinburgh Investment Trust* | 3.89 | UK Equity Income |
| 9 | BlackRock World Mining* | 4.53 | Sector Specialist: Commodities & Natural Resources |
| 10 | BlackRock Commodities Income | 5.49 | Sector Specialist: Commodities & Natural Resources |
| 11 | Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies* | 1.17 | Asia Pacific - ex Japan |
| 12 | European Assets* | 5.76 | European smaller companies |
| 13 | Aberdeen Asian Income* | 4.06 | Asia Pacific - ex Japan |
| 14 | Henderson Far East Income | 5.71 | Asia Pacific - ex Japan |
| 15 | Henderson Smaller Companies* | 1.68 | UK Smaller Companies |
| 16 | Bankers | 2.59 | Global |
| 17 | Witan | 2.23 | Global |
| 18 | Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust | 2.55 | Global |
| 19 | Perpetual Income & Growth* | 3.16 | UK Equity Income |
| 20 | Templeton Emerging Markets* | 3.19 | Global Emerging Markets |
Source: AIC
*Indicates an IC Top 100 Fund
