JPM trust returns driven by oil and gas overweight

An oil and gas overweight has been the biggest driver of outperformance for the £99m J.P. Morgan Smaller Companies investment trust over the past year.

Over 12 months to 26 October, the fund has returned 19% compared to an AIC UK Smaller Companies average of 16%, according to Financial Express. Run by Georgina Britton, the fund has an 8.9% exposure to oil and gas through a basket of AIM-listed companies, a 6.8% overweight to the benchmark. “Our approach was to have a basket of stocks as this is an area where companies are dependent on discoveries, and we have had a couple a cracking stocks that hit big, particularly Cove Energy and Nautical Petroleum” she said. Another theme Britton is accessing in her portfolio is the rise in M&A...