MURRAY International Trust manager Bruce Stout has highlighted the company’s low exposure to UK equities, against “an opaque economic and political backdrop”, and flagged a“vacuum” following the Brexit vote.

He claimed the Bank of England’s cut in base rates to 0.25 per cent last August had been “perhaps the most inexpedient interest rate cut in living memory”.

Mr Stout added: "For an economy already burdened with unsustainable current account and budget deficits, excessively leveraged public and private sectors, stagnating real incomes and over-extended property prices such additional uncertainty proved extremely unwelcome.

"Sterling plunged as the UK's Achilles' heel of foreign capital dependency was cruelly exposed."

Noting the trust had maintained UK investment around historical lows, Mr Stout said of the post-Brexit vote situation: “Within the eerie silence that descended, nothing could accurately be assessed about future investment, international trade, immigration, employment, security or growth simply because no precedent existed.”

Murray International unveiled a 40.3 per cent total return on net asset value, helped by sterling weakness.