A commodity switch took place this month.
1st September 2026
by Dave Baxter from interactive investor
Two commodity funds have traded place in our monthly investment trust bestseller list, with CQS Natural Resources G&I Ord CYN
entering while BlackRock World Mining Trust Ord BRWM slips out.
CYN, which holds shares and bonds of companies across the mining and resources sectors, moves into the list in seventh place.
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The fund has had an eventful year, both via the substantial ups and downs seen in the commodities sector and via a change of investment manager.
The trust’s portfolio managers Keith Watson and Robert Crayfourd left their employer earlier this year and the board has since opted to reinstate them now that they have moved to Tufton Investment Management. The pair will be in post from 14 September.
The fund has quite the range of different exposures, with precious metals accounting for around 39% of the portfolio, and oil and gas almost 30%. It also has exposures to uranium, shipping and base metals among other areas. Performance has been choppy although the trust’s shares have still returned around 27% so far in 2026.
Rising yield
Beyond that, we see the same names in the list, with a combination of high-yielding trusts and more growth-oriented offerings. But it’s a trust from the first camp rising to the top of the list.
which moves into the top spot, is a popular name from a troubled sector. Its shares have recovered aggressively so far in 2026, in part thanks to renewables getting more of the limelight amid the conflict in the Middle East.
And it still stands out on some of the fronts that bargain hunters and income investors value, from a 17% share price discount to net asset value (NAV) to a share price dividend yield of nearly 10%.
One other renewables fund sits in the list, in the form of Renewables Infrastructure Grp TRIG
It yields roughly the same and has produced pretty much the same share price return so far in 2026, but does have a slightly more diversified portfolio. Onshore wind accounts for 47% of the fund, with offshore wind on 32%, solar on 13% and battery storage on 8%.
Sticking with the dividend focus, either two or three equity income funds sit in the list, depending on how one defines them.
There’s Henderson Far East Income Ord HFEL
whose yield currently stands at 9.5%. As the performance table indicates, the fund has benefited handsomely from a rally for its market of choice, although it has tended to lag rival Asian equity income trusts.
HFEL’s manager did speak to us a few weeks ago, making the argument that the portfolio was lagging thanks to a more defensive approach than the competition. That, in theory, might protect it if an artificial intelligence (AI)-led rally in the region were suddenly to go sideways.
August’s bestseller list, which focuses on real-time buys and thus gives a sense of investors’ more tactical and timely choices, also contains the UK income favourite City of London Ord CTY
The fund, which holds UK large-cap shares, has tended to please investors with its now 60-year record of increasing its dividend.
The shares do still offer a yield of 3.8%, even as this has been squeezed by strong returns, although investors might note that the shares trade on a modest premium to NAV.
Another equity income fund in the list, if an unconventional one, is JPMorgan Global Growth & Income Ord JGGI
It has a so-called enhanced dividend policy, where it pays out around 4% of its NAV a year and funds this from capital rather than having to buy stocks with high yields.
The fund has tended to take a flexible approach when it comes to investment style although its top 10 holdings list does include plenty of “growth” stalwarts, from NVIDIA Corp NVDAto Amazon.com Inc AMZN Microsoft Corp MSFT, Alphabet Inc Class A and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd ADR TSM.
Growth plays
Investors are going more obviously out for growth via other names in the list. Take F&C Investment Trust Ord FCIT
which doesn’t deviate too much from its FTSE All-World benchmark index bar an 11.2% allocation to private equity. It has generated very respectable returns, even if it is slightly behind the FTSE All-World so far in 2026.
Investors are meanwhile sticking with some punchier names, too. Scottish Mortgage Ord SMT
which has ridden high this year thanks to its early exposure to Space Exploration Technologies Corp Class A SPCX
but will most likely be looking to reduce its now sizeable allocation to the company, sits in second place. SpaceX accounted for 18.1% of the fund at the end of July, with TSMC on 6.9% and Nvidia on 5.5%. Private companies ByteDance and Anthropic also sit in its top holdings list.
Polar Capital Technology Ord PCT
which has done well versus rivals this year in part thanks to its emerging markets exposure, slips from the top spot to third place. And an especially punchy name, Seraphim Space Investment Trust Ord SSIT slides down to 10th place.
Top 10 most-popular investment trusts in August
| Ranking | Investment trust | Change from July | One-year total return (%) to 31 August | Three-year total return (%) |
| 1 | Greencoat UK Wind UKW0 | Up 3 | 12 | 1.5 |
| 2 | Scottish Mortgage Ord SMT0.0 | Unchanged | 39 | 124.7 |
| 3 | Polar Capital Technology Ord PCT0.4 | Down 2 | 64.8 | 190.3 |
| 4 | Henderson Far East Income Ord HFEL0. | Down 1 | 26.4 | 67.3 |
| 5 | City of London Ord CTY0.5 | Up 1 | 22.2 | 68.8 |
| 6 | Renewables Infrastructure Grp TRIG0. | Up 2 | 10.6 | -7.6 |
| 7 | CQS Natural Resources G&I Ord CYN0.2 | New | 95.4 | 182.6 |
| 8 | F&C Investment Trust Ord FCIT0.2 | Down 3 | 19.8 | 65.9 |
| 9 | JPMorgan Global Growth & Income Ord JGGI0. | Unchanged | 14.4 | 50.3 |
| 10 | Seraphim Space Investment Trust Ord SSIT0.7 | Down 3 | 161.5 | 308.7 |
Source: FE. Top 10 is based on the number of buys in August. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
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