The funds investment objective is to invest primarily in the shares of companies throughout the world engaged in the production and marketing of commodities. The Fund aims to provide capital growth over the long term. It is suitable for investors willing to tolerate a high level of investment risk.

The fund is managed by Ian Henderson, who has over 35 years experience of running natural resources funds. Ian has managed this fund since 1992. Two global sector specialists, one of whom concentrates on energy, and the other on materials, support him. Having been launched in 1965 this fund is well established in contrast to the large number of new commodity funds recently launched to take advantage of the recent fashion for commodity investing.

The fund invests in gold, mining, oil and gas at various stages of development and seeks to make gains from the different commodity cycles. In a fundamentally volatile sector the fund spreads across commodity sub-sectors and holds 75-170 stocks. The neutral position of the fund is: 30% Energy, 30% gold and precious metals, 30% base metals, and 10% other. Although the manager may deviate from this he will never hold more than 50% in any one sector.

The current asset allocation is shown above and the relative performance of the fund is given in the table below. Please bear in mind that past performance is not a guide to the future, the value of the investments and any income can go down as well as up and you may not get back the amount you invested.