Witan blames gearing and stock picks for £420m loss

Net gearing and poor UK small-cap stock selection have been labelled as the key reasons the Witan Investment Trust made a loss of around £420m for the year ended 31 December 2002. The £1.2bn trust fell 28.3% in net asset value (NAV) terms over the year, underperforming its benchmark, a composite made up of 60% FTSE All-Share and 40% FTSE World Index ex-UK, which fell 27.2%. Over the course of the year, the trust's discount widened by 6%, which James Budden, marketing director of Witan, said exacerbated the trust's share price fall of 33.1%. The trust started 2002 with a discount of 8....