Quarter 2, 2026 - Investment Performance Report

Performance over the last year (up to Friday 2 October 2026)

Despite recent events, all portfolios are higher over the year. This may be surprising given some of the headlines in the media and illustrates why short-term news coverage can sometimes give a false picture. Reports of falling stock markets can understandably cause concern, but it remains important to focus on the longer-term purpose of your investments rather than performance over the past few weeks.

Portfolios designed for investors who are comfortable taking more investment risk delivered double-digit gains over the past 12 months. More cautious portfolios also produced positive returns.

Longer-term performance over the last 10 years (up to Friday 2 October 2026)

The ten-year returns illustrate the value of investing for the longer term. They also show that pursuing higher returns involves periods of volatility that require patience and confidence in the investment process. This was particularly evident during the early stages of the Covid pandemic in spring 2020, as the chart above illustrates.

Performance over the last year (up to Friday 2 October 2026)

Performance over the past year for the Values portfolios has been similar to that of the standard portfolios. This demonstrates that portfolios can reflect investors’ values while still seeking positive investment returns. Growth in the Values portfolios has been marginally lower over the year because energy has been among the strongest-performing sectors in the short term. Our Values portfolios screen companies based on their carbon emissions, with the main effect being the exclusion of large oil companies. As oil prices have risen in response to events in the Middle East, oil company share prices have also increased, contributing to the marginally lower growth of the Values portfolios.

Longer-term performance over 10 years (up to Friday 2 October 2026)

The Values portfolios have been available to our investors for five years. The graph below uses a ten-year period to illustrate how the underlying investment approach may have performed over a longer timeframe.

The longer-term figures show robust growth for the Values portfolios. Growth assets, particularly US equities, performed strongly over the period, despite the COVID pandemic and the return of inflation following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

The table below shows the performance of a range of asset classes in 2026 to date and annualised over the previous three years, as at the close of business on Wednesday 30 September 2026.

The picture over the last three years for growth assets has been strong, with good performance seen across equities. We have also shown the asset returns since the beginning of 2026, and despite the situation in the Middle East, many areas are still seeing positive returns.

We were reminded of the benefits of diversification with some of our tilts – to Emerging Markets and Value stocks performing well. Portfolios as a whole saw good returns over longer periods.

High-quality bonds have also held up well.  A diversified portfolio is designed to provide exposure to different sources of return so that no single event determines the outcome.