The London market offers a limited pool for stockpickers searching for worthy income. It’s a unfortunate truth that makes City of London Investment Trust’s unbroken record of dividend growth over the past 56 years even more striking.
UK stocks have long looked cheap compared with their international peers. The task for Job Curtis, manager of the FTSE 250 fund, is separating the bargains from the value traps. Historic performance indicates that Curtis, 61, is adept at balancing the portfolio sufficiently to keep the dividends flowing. Over the ten years to the end of February, the value of the trust’s assets had risen by 98 per cent, against an 84 per cent return from the FTSE All-Share, the yardstick it seeks to beat. On five, three
