Bullish Jeremy Tigue is proven right as Foreign & Colonial gains strength

One year ago, Jeremy Tigue, manager of the UK's oldest investment trust Foreign & Colonial, told the Evening Standard the time was right to be buying shares again.

Now, 12 months on, he has delivered a 22% rise in net asset value, and while the share price has lagged a bit, it is still up a healthy 14%.

A key factor which Tigue spotted last year was that many companies were in a position to start raising their dividends well above inflation.

That is reflected in the fact that F&C has collected £31.9 million from such payouts in the first half of this year compared with £24.9 million in the whole of 2010.

And Tigue does not think the case for equities is any weaker now.

He said: "Global economic growth is likely to remain subdued by the standards of past recoveries, and profits and dividend growth will probably slow in the rest of this year and into 2012.

"None of the problems that have worried investors have been resolved so stock markets are likely to remain nervous and directionless.

However, markets have absorbed a lot of bad news already, profits and dividends are still rising and the alternatives to equity investing look very unattractive," he added.

In the last six months F&C's net asset value rose 3.5% to 358.25p a share.

The half-year dividend is maintained at 3p a share.