Top 10 most-popular investment trusts: January 2025
The year started with three new companies in the most-bought list, while some large trusts remained popular.
3rd February 2025 12:57
by Sam Benstead from interactive investor
Technology-focused investment trusts continued their hot run in the first month of the year, with Scottish Mortgage (LSE:SMT) holding on to the top spot on our most-bought list, and Polar Capital Technology (LSE:PCT) rising five places to fifth.
Scottish Mortgage has posted a strong 12 months of gains, with the shares rising 40.9%, as optimism around artificial intelligence (AI) has spread through markets.
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Meanwhile, PCT has risen 39.7% over the past 12 months, boosted for the same reason. Both are big backers of Nvidia, which has risen more than 70% over the past year, as well as AI leaders such as Meta, Amazon and TSMC.
Scottish Mortgage invests in both listed and unlisted companies, so long as they have the potential to rapidly grow their revenues and profits.
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Manager Lawrence Burns recently recorded a video interview with interactive investor where he discussed the performance record and also the stocks he believes will be next to reach a $1 trillion (£800 billion) market cap.
Meanwhile, PCT looks more similar to the technology benchmark and invests only in listed businesses.
There were three new entries last month: Assura (LSE:AGR)(fourth place), Supermarket Income REIT (LSE:SUPR) (eighth) and Pershing Square Holdings (LSE:PSH) (ninth).
Assura and Supermarket Income own property portfolios and return income generated back to shareholders via dividends. They yield 8.8% and 9.1% currently, based on their current share prices and last 12 months of dividends.
PSH is a very concentrated equity portfolio managed by Bill Ackman. It owns just 13 shares, including Alphabet, Nike and Chipotle.
Other income trusts popular with investors were City of London (LSE:CTY) and Greencoat UK Wind (LSE:UKW).
While CTY uses dividends from large UK businesses to yield 4.8%, UKW yields 8.4% by using renewable energy assets to sell electricity to the grid.
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Rounding off January’s most-bought investment trust list were global strategies JPMorgan Global Growth & Income (LSE:JGGI), F&C Investment Trust (LSE:FCIT) and Alliance Witan (LSE:ALW).
The best performer of the three over three years is JGGI, returning 50.6%, while FCIT has the best 12-month record, rising 23.8%.
While FCIT and ALW use a “multi-manager” approach and outsource stock picking to third-party managers, JGGI uses in-house research and investment teams to build a portfolio of both growth and income shares. It uses capital to pay an enhanced dividend, currently 3.1%.
The three trusts that dropped off the most-bought list in January were BlackRock World Mining Trust (LSE:BRWM), NextEnergy Solar (LSE:NESF) and 3i Group (LSE:III).
Top 10 most-popular investment trusts in January 2025
Position | Trust | Change on last month | One-year return (%) | Three-year return (%) |
1 | No change | 40.9 | 2.2 | |
2 | No change | -11.1 | 0.4 | |
3 | No change | 22.4 | 50.6 | |
4 | New entry | -9.7 | -33.2 | |
5 | Up five | 39.7 | 62.1 | |
6 | Down one | 23.8 | 43.8 | |
7 | Down three | 18.4 | 43.2 | |
8 | New entry | -9.8 | -31.6 | |
9 | New entry | 14.7 | 61 | |
10 | Down four | 14.9 | 24.3 |
Source: interactive investors/FE FundInfo, data to 31 January 2025. Note: the top 10 is based on the number of “buys” during the month of January.
These articles are provided for information purposes only. Occasionally, an opinion about whether to buy or sell a specific investment may be provided by third parties. The content is not intended to be a personal recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument or product, or to adopt any investment strategy as it is not provided based on an assessment of your investing knowledge and experience, your financial situation or your investment objectives. The value of your investments, and the income derived from them, may go down as well as up. You may not get back all the money that you invest. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.
Full performance can be found on the company or index summary page on the interactive investor website. Simply click on the company's or index name highlighted in the article.