Top 10 most-popular investment trusts: December 2025

Three trusts of very different ilks entered the list of bestselling investment trusts for December, with a global equity trust and two specialist names making it into the table.

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Our ranking system, which looks at the number of buys among interactive investor customers each month with regular investments excluded, saw F&C Investment Trust Ord (LSE:FCIT) enter the list.

A diversified global equity fund that could serve as something of a one-stop shop, F&C has had a decent showing in 2025 with a 14.6% share price total return. That puts it slightly ahead of the MSCI World index (on 12.8%), comfortably ahead of rivals Alliance Witan Ord (LSE:ALW) and Brunner Ord (LSE:BUT), but a little behind Bankers Ord (LSE:BNKR).

F&C doesn’t tend to deviate too aggressively from its underlying market: its top six holdings at the end of September were all Magnificent Seven members, with other popular shares such as Mastercard Inc Class A (NYSE:MA), Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd ADR (NYSE:TSM)among its top holdings.

Most of its position sizes are fairly modest and, unlike some of its peers, the trust is still heavily allocated to North American equities, which make up around 62% of the portfolio. There’s a modest allocation to emerging market shares, and a 10.5% allocation to private equity.

The other two names to enter the list are both very strong performers with a niche approach.

Seraphim Space Investment Trust Ord (LSE:SSIT), which sits in sixth place for December, tends to focus on private companies in what it dubs the “SpaceTech” sector.

Holdings include ICEYE, which runs a cohort of synthetic aperture radar satellites, space logistics and transportation specialist D-Orbit and communications equipment provider All Space.

Plenty of factors explain the trust’s strong recent returns. Seraphim itself would point to strong operational performance, with the fund’s last update noting that roughly half the portfolio had a “robust cash runway”.

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But the fund also focuses on two big investment themes. There’s obviously space exploration, with the advances there demonstrated by the amount of progress made by SpaceX, as well as the substantial upward valuations the company has enjoyed.

But Seraphim’s portfolio also taps into the theme of defence spending. Its latest update notes, for example, that top holding ICEYE had signed a $168 million (£125 million) contract with the Finnish defence forces.

Exciting as it might seem, the fund comes with some real risks. The sheer weight of returns means the trust’s share price discount to net asset value (NAV) has evaporated, with the shares trading roughly on par. As such, the trust is not obviously cheap, and the shares could fall a good way if investors received any disappointing news.

There could also be uncertainty around the portfolio valuation, given that the fund invests in unlisted companies. And this is still an extremely concentrated fund: ICEYE accounted for around 35% of the fund at the end of September, with D-Orbit on 12.1%.

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The third fund to enter the bestsellers list for December is BlackRock World Mining Trust Ord (LSE:BRWM), which managed a stunning 74.2% share price total return for 2025.

This is partly a story about the returns from gold, and from gold mining equities, in the last year. Gold mining shares made up 37.3% of the portfolio at the end of September, with diversified miners accounting for 25.9% and copper miners on 20.6%.

Olivia Markham, co-manager on the trust, spoke to interactive investor in late 2025 and gave a bullish account of the gold miners and their prospects, arguing that such companies were “being disciplined” financially and managing to capture the higher gold price.

However, investors may well ask whether the precious metal, and those companies that mine it, can continue such a strong run of performance in 2026.

Other names

We have otherwise seen the continuation of a few buying trends in December. Investors have continued to buy into private equity play 3i Group Ord (LSE:III), which saw its enormous premium fall back somewhat after an update that appeared to disappoint investors.

The fund, which is largely a play on European discount retailer Action, nevertheless traded on a premium of almost 15% at the start of 2026.

Other popular trusts continue to turn heads. Scottish Mortgage Ord (LSE:SMT), which targets all manner of future themes from the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) to e-commerce, moves up to the top of the list.

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SMT shareholders got some good news in December in the form of an upwards valuation for SpaceX, lifting the trust’s position size from 8.2% at the end of November to 15.3% as of mid-December. Another growth-focused fund, Polar Capital Technology Ord (LSE:PCT), is also in the table.

But it’s not all about growth investing in the US.

UK income funds remain popular, from the slow and steady dividend hero City of London Ord (LSE:CTY)to the value-focused Temple Bar Ord (LSE:TMPL).

The two funds share some holdings, and a penchant for the financials sector, but differ in some important ways.

Note, for example, that Temple Bar adopted an enhanced dividend policy in 2025, using capital and reserves to bolster its payout, an approach that City of London has dismissed. Temple Bar also makes substantial use of shares listed overseas, in part for diversification purposes.

It has been a torrid year for many of the renewable energy infrastructure trusts but investors continue to buy into some of these funds, presumably to take advantage of big share price discounts and chunky share price dividend yields.

Greencoat UK Wind (LSE:UKW), which comes with a dividend yield of 10.6%, remains in second place. NextEnergy Solar Ord (LSE:NESF), with a dividend yield of almost 17%, is in ninth place.

Top 10 most-popular trusts in December 2025 

Source: FE. The top 10 is based on the number of buys in December. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.