Edinburgh Investment Trust PLC on Tuesday said it benefited from strong performances by NatWest Group PLC, Tesco PLC and Baltic Classifieds Group PLC over the past six months, as UK consumer-exposed stocks performed ‘strongly’.

The FTSE 250 constituent invests in large-cap UK securities. It said net asset value per share at fair value was 830.39 pence on September 30, up 6.5% from 779.97p at March 31.

NAV total return at fair value was 6.5% over the six months to September 30, outperforming the FTSE All-Share Index, which had a return of 4.0%.

While grocer Tesco, lender NatWest and ads portal operator Baltic Classifieds performed strongly, pest control firm Rentokil Initial PLC, and Spirax Group PLC were the main detractors, Edinburgh Investment Trust said. Spirax is a thermal energy and fluid technology business.

Edinburgh Investment said it believed that Rentokil and Spirax suffered temporary setbacks in growth and execution.

Edinburgh Investment declared an interim dividend of 6.90 pence per share, up 3.0% from 6.70p a year ago.

Looking ahead, Chair Elisabeth Stheeman said: ‘Stock markets and investment performance have been helpful of late, and the future will not always be as rosy as the current environment. Despite the pattern of recent years, strong long-term investment returns are not typically associated with the fairly straight ’bottom left to top right’ lines on the company’s current performance charts. Nonetheless, with a strong management team and a repeatable investment process, together with the board’s other initiatives noted above, we are confident that we can make further strides forward in the years ahead.’

Edinburgh Investment shares were 0.5% lower at 725.50 pence each late Tuesday morning in London.

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