Stockpickers battling cheap passive funds for investor cash need to stick their necks out to prove their worth. But a growing record of underperformance versus the FTSE All-Share is hardly a great advertisement for Finsbury Growth & Income Trust veteran manager Nick Train.
The negative share price total return to date is 12.1 per cent, and a negative 10 per cent for the trust’s net asset value, versus a 1.5 per cent gain by the benchmark. That follows a performance that lagged the index last year, too. A widening discount against NAV, which now stands at just over 6 per cent, aptly reflects the risk of further weakness ahead for some of the trust’s largest holdings.
Prizing qualities such as high margins, low debt and
