August was a glittering month for mining investment companies as geopolitical turmoil and concerns about the “debasement” of the US dollar saw gold rally 10% while industrial metals continued to enjoy booming demand from the worldwide rollout of artificial intelligence and the transition to clean energy.

As a result, four of the five biggest investment company risers in our first table were listed mining funds with gains of 20%-34%. Technology weighted trusts also bounced back after big falls in July.

By comparison, there were no huge losers among our second table of fallers, although it was a poor month for some interest rate sensitive funds investing in property and renewables whose share prices declined by 4%-11%.

Our tables show the total one-month return from an investment company’s share price in the middle column, and on the right the gap at 31 August between the price and the net asset value (NAV) of its investments excluding debt. Trusts with shares above NAV are said to stand on a “premium”, while those where the price is above NAV trade on a “discount”. 

Source: Winterflood 31/8/26

Golden Prospect Precious Metals (GPM) made 34% for shareholders in August as its holdings in gold miners magnified the gain in the safe haven metal. This pushed the investment company’s market value to £93m and extended its already impressive three- and five-year gains to 332% and 154%. The rally saw its share price discount narrow to 6.6% from a one-year average of 11.6%, according to data from stock broker Winterflood.

GPM’s interim managers Diana Racanelli and Craig Bethune of Manulife can take some credit although most of the praise belongs to long-term managers Keith Watson and Robert Crayfourd who resigned from Manulife subsidiary CQS in March and later revealed they were jumping ship to Tufton Investment Management. In July GPM’s board surprised the market by not appointing Tufton but opting for Trevor Steel and Mark Burridge at Baker Steel instead. It also negotiated a 21% fee cut and announced a new enhanced 6% dividend policy alongside plans to move to the London Stock Exchange’s main market.

CQS Natural Resources Growth & Income (CYN), hitherto a sister fund of GPM that is following Watson and Crayfourd to Tufton, rallied 23% in August, again under the interim management of Racanelli and Bethune. This lifted its market value to £168m and pushed its shares close to “par” or NAV, having traded at an average 2.8% discount in the past year. The good rating also reflects strong performance under the previous managers with total shareholder returns of 192% and 303% over three and five years.

Geiger Counter (GCL), the third of Watson and Crayfourd’s investment companies that is also currently in the hands of Racanelli and Craig Bethune, gained 22% last month to lift it to £80m. After serving protective 12-month notice against CQS Manulife in May, the uranium mining fund is still reviewing its options about whether to appoint Tufton or another manager. 

Proving this wasn’t all about Watson and Crayfourd’s stock picking legacy, BlackRock World Mining (BRWM), at £2bn the largest trust in the AIC Commodities & Natural Resources sector, gained 20% in fifth place. This took its three- and five-year returns under BlackRock fund managers Evy Hambro and Olivia Markham to 107% and 141%. Its discount also narrowed in response to investor demand, ending the month at just 0.8% compared to a one-year average of 4.4%.

Away from mining, August was a strong month for tech-focused funds. A 33% rebound in SpaceX after a pullback following its record $1.7trn flotation in June helped bolster the four Baillie Gifford investment trusts with large stakes in Elon Musk’s rocket, satellite and AI group. 

Edinburgh Worldwide (EWI), the £922m global equities trust that Baillie Gifford looks set to lose after activist hedge fund Saba gained control of its board in April, did best. With almost a fifth of its assets in SpaceX at the end of July, it rallied 15% in August to end the month on a 6.1% discount. Under fund managers Douglas Brodie, Svetlana Viteva and Luke Ward, EWI has delivered a 76% total return to shareholders over three years but still nursing a 20% loss over five years, highlighting the market crash that hurt it and other growth funds four years ago.

Schiehallion (MNTN), the £1.7bn private equity fund that started the month with 10.1% in SpaceX, advanced 12% though at the end of August its shares stood on a big discount of 13.2% that was wider than the one-year average of 10.4%. Managed by Peter Singlehurst and Robert Natzler, MNTN’s top 10 positions also include the recently floated digital retail platform Bending Spoons and TikTok owner ByteDance, the world’s third biggest private company valued at $550bn–$600bn.

Scottish Mortgage (SMT), Baillie Gifford’s £15.9bn flagship with 18.1% in SpaceX in July, also gained 12%, pushing its shares to £14.92 as they again attempted to breach their £15.28 peak of November 2021. Shareholders who stuck with the trust under managers Tom Slater and Lawrence Burns through its bear market mauling have been rewarded with an impressive recovery from a 621p low in May 2023. At 31 August, the shares had generated three- and five-year total returns of 121% and 12% and stood on a 7.5% discount. 

Lastly, Baillie Gifford US Growth (USA), 13.6% exposed to SpaceX in July, rose 11% in a month that saw Saba, holder of 29% of the £943m trust, requisition a shareholder vote on appointing a new board at its annual general meeting next month. Shares that have returned 119% over three years but shed 1% over five, ended August on a 5.7% discount in line with their 12-month average. 

Seraphim Space (SSIT), the world’s only listed space technology fund, saw its ordinary shares jump 23% in August, our third biggest riser. The £444m trust, which has not backed SpaceX but instead invests in the constellation of promising companies growing in its orbit, made three investments with the £137m raised in its C-share (SSIC) issue in May. Proving its portfolio was about more than the 47% allocation it has to €10bn (£8.6bn) Finnish satellite maker ICEYE, fund managers Mark Boggett and James Bruegger announced $28.6m (£21.3m) of top-up investments in Pixxel, an Indian satellite constellation operator, and Zeno Power, a US nuclear battery technology provider, and also a £22.2m ($30m) investment in Hubble Network, a US start-up building the first satellite-powered Bluetooth network. At the end of the month, SSIT had made 309% and 66% for shareholders over three and five years, again reflecting a strong recovery from 2023 lows. Reflecting investor enthusiasm for the sector, the shares stood on a 5.4% premium at the end of the month although that moderated to 1.3% last week.

Molten Ventures (GROW), the £1.2bn venture capital fund with 9% in space investments through ICEYE, Isar Aerospace and SatVu (although its largest position is £157m in digital bank Revolut), rallied 16% in August. Saba is among investors who have done well from GROW’s recovery. Since doubling its stake to 10% in March, the activist has seen the shares advance around 50%, narrowing their discount from 37% to just 7% at the end of last month. That was in response to the company adding another £15m to share buybacks at the end of July having purchased £10m of its cheap stock since January. That’s good news for Saba which continued lifting its stake to 14.2% at 31 July. Three-year shareholder returns stood at at 190% at the end of last month but were still down 35% over five years. 

HgCapital (HGT), the £2bn private equity investor in unquoted business software providers, bounced 13% higher as it continued its halting recovery from the “SaaSmageddon” in listed software stocks in February over AI disruption fears. The shares ended the month at 440.5p, below the 507p level at the end of February but up from 323p in May, which was close to a four-year low. As we reported, Valhalla, the investment vehicle of Mark O’Hare, the founder of alternative asset data provider Prequin, lifted its stake to 13.4% from 12% at the end of the month when the shares stood 17% below NAV. That compared to a 7% discount before the sell-off. A first quarter trading statement in May showed the portfolio was more resilient than its share price slide suggested with asset value falling 5.4% in the first three months of the year. 

August also saw good gains by International Biotechnology Trust (IBT) and Fidelity Emerging Markets (FEML), which is overweight in tech stocks through three top holdings in TSMC, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, Asia’s biggest beneficiaries from massive global AI spending.

Closer to home, two UK smaller companies notched up double-digit gains, showing an investment opportunity is still in evidence after a multi-year exodus by UK investors from domestic stocks. 

As we reported last week, Onward Opportunities (ONWD) broke through £50m for the first time since launch over three yeas ago with a 20% share price leap following a string of positive updates from its holdings.  

Aberforth Geared Value & Income (AGVI), a £100m 6.6%-yielder run by value fund managers at Edinburgh-based Aberforth, gained 11% with its shares on a 10% discount. The fixed seven-year term vehicle was launched just over two years ago and has made 23% for shareholders in the past year.

Source: Winterflood 31/8/26

Turning briefly to our fallers, Residential Secure Income (RESI) grabs the wooden spoon for a second consecutive month, although, as Richard Williams pointed out in REIT Review last week, the apparent 65% share price decline in the table does not reflect a crash but the £108.3m disposal of its retirement portfolio to Living REIT (LIVE) leading to a £35.2m return of capital last month.

Second-placed Ecofin US Renewables (RENEW) did fall 11%, however. Delays in fixing connection problems reduce the full amount the winding-down fund could have made from the $30m sale of its Whirlwind wind farm in Texas last December.