Investment trusts, due to their closed-ended structure, offer investors the chance of picking up a potential bargain. Such an opportunity arises when a trust’s share price is lower than the underlying investments held by the trust (the net asset value, or NAV).
However, a trust trading on a discount to NAV is not necessarily a buying opportunity. There’s likely a good reason why the trust is cheap, such as subdued short- or long-term performance, or poor investor sentiment towards how it invests.
In our weekly series, interactive investor highlights the 10 biggest investment trust discount moves over the past week.
In total, nearly 400 investment trusts have been screened, with the data sourced from Morningstar. Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) have been excluded. We also strip out trusts with less than £20 million in assets and those that are not available on the interactive investor platform.
Uranium specialist Geiger Counter (LSE:GCL) tops the table this week, with its discount widening nearly 10 percentage points to -16.7%. The fund mainly invests in companies involved in the exploration, development and production of uranium to supply the nuclear power industry. It tends to give investors a wild ride, reflected by the trust returning 142.2% over five years, and posting losses of -14.9% and -10.4% over three years and one year.
Second in the table is JPMorgan American (LSE:JAM), which has slipped from a small premium to a discount of -4.6%. It holds a mix of value and growth stocks. However, in terms of its biggest holdings there’s a preference for the world’s mega-cap technology companies. As of the end of February, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) made up its five top holdings.
Lower down the table, and also moving from a small premium to a discount of -0.3%, is Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Markets (LSE:AWEM). It’s joined in the table by peer Barings Emerging EMEA Opportunities (LSE:BEMO), which is on a much larger discount of -23.9%.
As has been the case for a while, adventurous investment trusts feature heavily in the table, which is a reflection of investors being more risk-off in response to the uptick in stock market volatility brought about by US president Donald Trump’s tariff policies. BlackRock Latin American (LSE:BRLA) and VietNam Holding (LSE:VNH) also feature this week, with respective discounts of -14.3% and -9.7%.
Source: Morningstar. *Data from close of trading 17 April 2025 to 24 April 2025.
These articles are provided for information purposes only. Occasionally, an opinion about whether to buy or sell a specific investment may be provided by third parties. The content is not intended to be a personal recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument or product, or to adopt any investment strategy as it is not provided based on an assessment of your investing knowledge and experience, your financial situation or your investment objectives. The value of your investments, and the income derived from them, may go down as well as up. You may not get back all the money that you invest. 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.
Full performance can be found on the company or index summary page on the interactive investor website. Simply click on the company’s or index name highlighted in the article.
