Best and Worst

THE property and financial unit trust sector comprises two types of fund with totally different investment philosophies.

Over the last year, funds that invest predominantly in property have performed much better than those invested in financials such as banks and insurance.

Martin Holden, head of retail marketing at Capital House, said that the strong performance of its unit trust compared with others was due to its investment in the shares of property companies that last year started to recover from six years of poor performance. 'Property was one of the worst hit sectors in the crash. The sector was hit with the double whammy of falling markets as well as the fall-out in property prices.

'Over five years, the fund is still showing a loss. Last year was a year of recovery, while this year should be a year of real growth.' Funds that invest directly in property rather than the shares of property companies have yet to show the same growth.

The eight financial unit trusts in this sector invest in banks, investment houses and, in some cases, investment trusts. Mike Ryder-Richardson, S&P marketing manager, said: 'Our financial fund has an international diversification of shares. It is 70 per cent invested in the UK and 30 per cent invested internationally.'

While property unit trusts outperformed the financial sector over one year, the situation over five years is reversed, indicating that most of the recovery in financial shares has taken place.

----------------------------------------------------------------- FINANCIAL AND PROPERTY UNIT TRUSTS ----------------------------------------------------------------- The best pounds 1 Capital House Property Shares. . . . . . . . . .143.53 2 Abtrust Property Shares. . . . . . . . . . . . .143.36 3 Invesco Property Shares. . . . . . . . . . . . .127.57 4 Norwich Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124.96 5 CH Financial (formerly Brown Shipley) . . . . . 118.93 The worst 9 Barclays Unicorn Financial. . . . . . . . . . . 114.96 10 Hill Samuel Financial. . . . . . . . . . . . . 114.89 11 S&P Financial Securities. . . . . . . . . . . .112.96 12 Framlington Financial. . . . . . . . . . . . . 111.83 13 Barclays Unicorn Property. . . . . . . . . . . 107.25 The table shows the value as of 2 May 1994 of a pounds 100 lump sum invested one year earlier. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Micropal -----------------------------------------------------------------