Discount Delver: the 10 cheapest trusts on 8 May 2026

Investment trusts offer a potential bargain thanks to their closed-ended structure. That happens when a trust’s share price is lower than the value of its underlying investments (the net asset value, or NAV).         

However, a trust trading on a discount to NAV is not necessarily a buying opportunity. There’s likely a good reason why the trust is cheap, such as subdued short- or long-term performance, or poor investor sentiment towards it.        

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In this weekly series, interactive investor highlights the 10 biggest investment trust discount moves over the past week.      

In total, nearly 400  investment trusts have been screened, with the data sourced from Morningstar. Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) have been excluded. We also strip out trusts with less than £30 million in assets and those that are not available on the interactive investor platform.

EM and Asia funds go cheaper

Trusts operating in Asia and the emerging markets have seen their discounts widen this week, although they continue to ride a wave of strong performance this year.

The MSCI Emerging Markets index has returned around 15% in sterling terms so far in 2026, in part thanks to certain shares associated with artificial intelligence (AI), from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd DR (LSE:SMSN) to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd ADR (NYSE:TSM), performing especially well. 

One such name, South Korea’s SK Hynix, is not directly available for investment and most readily accessed via funds.

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Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Markets Ord (LSE:AWEM) and Schroder Asian Total Return Inv. Company (LSE:ATR) have both performed even better than the market this year, but do see their discounts widen out this week without an obvious trigger. 

Barings Emerging EMEA Opportunities Ord (LSE:BEMO) has also seen its discount grow without a clear catalyst, although its performance has been fairly soft in 2026 compared with peers.

Chrysalis hunkers down

Elsewhere, Chrysalis Investments Limited Ord (LSE:CHRY), the “growth capital” fund that has opted to wind down, saw its discount creep out in a week where it confirmed a decision to ditch its investment manager.

The trust has opted to go for a self-managed model, dropping its external investment manager as it seeks to realise assets from the portfolio. 

The board has also discontinued the fund’s buyback policy, and will look to return cash to shareholders as portfolio sales are made. Chrysalis remains a concentrated portfolio of private assets, with Starling Bank accounting for around half the fund alone.

Another wind-down fund, RM Infrastructure Income Ord (LSE:RMII), sits in this week’s table. In the last week it announced that the trust would purchase around 22% of shares as part of a tender offer.

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As often happens, we see the renewable energy infrastructure sector make an appearance in the table, although only via Bluefield Solar Income Fund (LSE:BSIF). 

The fund this week announced that it had raised some £120 million of debt to fund the construction of four new projects. While funding new investments should be a positive development, investors do continue to fret about the big debt piles in this sector.

We also see UK small-cap trusts River UK Micro Cap Ord (LSE:RMMC) and Rights & Issues Investment Trust Ord (LSE:RIII) experience some discount widening, if without an obvious trigger. 

Source: Morningstar, close of trading 30 April to 7 May 2026.