July's 10 most-bought trusts

Scottish Mortgage was the most-bought trust on the Interactive Investor platform in July.

The trust, which is managed by James Anderson, is a technology-dominated global equity portfolio and one of our sister magazine Money Observer's Rated Funds.

It has been the most-bought trust on Interactive Investor every month since February 2014. Only once, in April 2015, it was briefly toppled by Woodford Patient Capital during its record-breaking £800 million launch.

Since then, as it was in July, Woodford Patient Capital has tended to be the second most-bought trust, despite its rocky start since its launch on 24 April. Over the last year to 3 August it shed 22.3%. In addition, the trust's large share price premium to net asset value (NAV) has eroded over the year.

Money Observer Rated Fund City of London took third place. The trust is favoured by income investors, thanks to a long track record of year-on-year dividend increases.

Safe havens and specialists

BlackRock World Mining - also a Money Observer Rated Fund - leapt three spots to fourth position in July.

It has been one of the best-performing Rated Funds in the first half of 2016, thanks to the fact that 23% of its portfolio is in gold - viewed as a safe haven in turbulent times.

It has, however, been a painful couple of years for gold investors. Over five years BlackRock World Mining is still down 50%. This is why advisers recommend that investors limit their exposure to specialist gold funds to a small part of a diversified portfolio.

Another specialist fund, Money Observer Rated Fund Biotech Growth Trust went up four places to be the fifth most-bought trust in July, on the back of the typically volatile biotechnology sector starting to turn a corner from last year's troubles.

Rated Funds Finsbury Growth & Income and Witan both dropped by two spots to be sixth and seventh in July's top 10 list.

RIT Capital was the eighth most-bought trust in July. The 55-year-old investment trust of financier Jacob Rothschild is focused on wealth preservation and it has a cautious multi-asset approach.

It invests in a very wide range of assets, including quoted equities, private investments, absolute return and credit, real assets, currency, and liquidity and borrowings.

Foreign & Colonial, the UK's oldest investment trust, is a new entry, taking ninth spot. In 2014 Jeremy Tigue, who had managed the trust for over 17 years, stepped down and the board appointed F&C's head of multi asset, Paul Niven, as his successor.

Over the past year the trust, which invests in quoted and unquoted (private equity) companies, has returned 9.8 over the past year, ahead of the average global trust return of 7.8%.

The three funds that have exited the top 10 are Merchants, Jupiter European Opportunities and Henderson Smaller Companies.

This article is for information and discussion purposes only and does not form a recommendation to invest or otherwise. The value of an investment may fall. 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.