Baillie Gifford’s £2.7 billion Monks Investment Trust plc reported that it trailed the FTSE World Index in the year to April 30, 2025, after the fund took a hit late in its financial year from US President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement of US tariffs and China’s retaliatory measures.

The fund gave up 10 months of gains to end the year flat.

Monks’ net asset value (NAV) total return, with borrowings calculated at fair value, was +0.1% and the share price total return was -1.5%. Over the same period, the FTSE World Index return was +5.3%.

The largest investments of the Monks Investment Trust include Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Amazon.com, Prosus, TSMC, Nvidia, Elevance Health, Ryanair, Mastercard and DoorDash.

Monks chairman Karl Sternberg wrote: “Global equities performed well in 2024, driven by strong corporate earnings and the Artificial Intelligence spending boom.

“Indeed, as recently as February of this year, Monks’ NAV per share surpassed its previous high of £15, last reached in November 2021. However, a significant selloff occurred in April 2025, triggered by President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ announcement of U.S. tariffs and China’s retaliatory measures.

“Monks was heavily affected by the subsequent market sell-off, with the NAV and share price reaching their lows for the year in April 2025, shortly before the Company’s year-end.

“During the year to 30 April 2025, the net asset value (‘NAV’) total return, with borrowings calculated at fair value, was +0.1% and the share price total return was -1.5%.

“Over the same period, the FTSE World Index return was +5.3%. This is clearly a disappointing result, and whilst the team are now in line with the index again this calendar year, a year-end-date is a year-end-date.

“It is particularly disappointing for me to report this underperformance, since I step down as Chairman of Monks at the forthcoming AGM.”

Over the course of the company’s financial year, Monks bought back 26.5 million shares, at a cost of £321.1 million.

Since the fund commenced this ongoing programme in January 2022, it has bought back 65.5 million shares at a cost of £727.1 million, representing 27.7% of the company’s issued share capital as at December 31, 2021, one of the largest buybacks in the global equity sector.

At the year-end, the discount was 10.1%.

The fund’s managers are Spencer Adair, Malcolm MacColl and Helen Xiong.

The managers wrote: “We have no special insight into what President Trump might do next. The range of potential outcomes remains extraordinarily wide.

“Policies are announced and then rescinded almost daily. So, rather than offering predictions that will likely prove embarrassingly wrong by the time this report reaches your hands, we will share the principles that we are applying to navigate uncertainty and how these are reflected in Monks’ portfolio …

“The US is our largest geographic allocation in absolute terms, and therefore, Monks gave up 10 months of gains to end the year flat.

“A second effect of President Trump’s pronouncements and a lack of clarity on how the budget deficit will be brought under control has been a weaker dollar, again impacting the company, whose shares are priced in sterling but where many of the assets are in US dollars …”