Top 10 best-selling investment trusts in August

Important information - the value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you invest. 

‘Eclectic’ seems the right term for the choices of Fidelity’s investment trust buyers last month. August’s top 10 best-sellers’ list consisted of a Japan fund, two trusts that invest in the UK, two that invest globally, a US trust, a European trust and funds that focus on technology, green power generation and private equity investments. 

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In first place came Schroder Japan. Buyers may have been hoping for a continuation of the Tokyo stock market’s spectacular run – the Nikkei 225 index has gained 88% since a low at the time of ‘liberation day’ in April last year. The trust has lagged that performance slightly over the period with a rise of 79.3%. Please remember past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns.

Some investors may also have noted recent attempts by the authorities in Japan and America to boost the yen, which, all else equal, is positive for overseas investors in Tokyo-listed shares. Schroder Japan is on Fidelity’s Select 50 list of recommended funds, which is compiled by independent analysts.

Next in the top 10 was a long-standing favourite of Fidelity customers, City of London. The trust, which can boast an unrivalled six decades of unbroken rises in the annual dividend, currently yields 4.1% (yields are variable and not guaranteed).

JPMorgan Global Growth & Income was in third place. Although global in name, the trust is currently dominated by American stocks, which account for 68.8% of the fund’s assets and seven of its top 10 holdings. The longest-standing of the trust’s three-strong management team, Helge Skibeli, recently announced that he would retire in 18 months’ time. Sam Witherow and James Cook, his co-managers, will continue to run the portfolio thereafter.

Fourth-placed Temple Bar is a ‘value’ fund that invests predominantly in London-listed shares. Top holdings include BT, BP, Shell and NatWest and the portfolio is relatively concentrated at just 39 stocks. The current yield is 3.8% and the trust has the second-best 10-year performance record, a gain of 185% on a total-return basis, of the 17 funds in the Association of Investment Companies’ UK Equity Income sector.

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August’s top 10 included a trust from a sector that is seldom represented in our best-sellers’ lists: private equity. Patria Private Equity’s appearance in fifth place in the table does not seem to have an obvious explanation, although bargain hunters may have noticed its discount of 30% or so, which compares with a sector average of 18.3% and discounts of 22.7% and 14.5% for HgCapital and 3i respectively at the time of writing. 

JPMorgan European Growth & Income was in sixth position. Investors may have chosen the trust as a way to diversify holdings away from America, or from global funds heavily exposed to America, amid concerns over the valuation of US AI companies and their ability to make adequate returns on the vast sums they are investing in the technology.

Such concerns did not seem to deter buyers of the next trust in the table, Allianz Technology, which has backed the AI theme heavily. The fund has 6% or more of its money in each of Nvidia, Alphabet (Google), Broadcom, Microsoft and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which are all key AI players.

Eighth-placed Greencoat UK Wind appeals to a different kind of investor again. Whereas many technology companies offer little or no dividend income, Greencoat UK Wind yields 8.1% from its portfolio of wind farms. Earlier this month the broker Deutsche Numis published research on infrastructure trusts in which Greencoat was among those to be given a positive recommendation, on the basis that ‘base-case returns are both deliverable and underappreciated, with additional upside from active management, capital recycling and realisations’.

Another income trust, BlackRock American Income, was next, although this fund yields a more modest 5.7%. Top holdings include ‘old economy’ stalwarts such as Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Chase and Chevron, although tech companies such as Amazon and Alphabet do feature too.

Tenth place was also taken by an income trust, Invesco Global Equity Income, which yields 4.1%. The fund has doubled in value over the past five years on a total-return basis (that is, with dividends reinvested). Top holdings include Texas Instruments, 3i, Dell and Rolls-Royce. The US accounts for 41.6% of assets and the UK 23.2%.

One notable feature of the table is that three of the top 10 trusts (City of London, BlackRock American Income and Invesco Global Equity Income) are trading at a premium. By contrast, of the 280 or so members of the Association of Investment Companies, just 21, or 7.5%, trade at a premium. Buying an investment trust that’s trading at a discount is often seen as a way to ‘bargain hunt’, but this top 10 suggests that our customers are not put off buying a trust by the absence of a discount. 
 

Top 10 best-selling investment trusts on Fidelity Personal Investing in August 2026:

1. Schroder Japan
2. City of London
3. JPMorgan Global Growth & Income
4. Temple Bar
5. Patria Private Equity
6. JPMorgan European Growth & Income
7. Allianz Technology
8. Greencoat UK Wind
9. BlackRock American Income
10. Invesco Global Equity Income

Source: Fidelity International. Total net investment trust sales from ISA, SIPP and Investment Accounts in August 2026 for Personal Investors only.

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