Foreign & Colonial Eurotrust Final Results

Peter Jarvis, fund manager of Foreign & Colonial Eurotrust, said: "Looking forward from here we remain relatively positive on the outlook for European shares but are aware that earnings are not likely to support the market the way that they have since 2003. Investor sentiment is likely to remain cautious in the near term but we believe valuations, M&A and the continued low level of net issuance in Europe should support the market."

Net asset value per share rose by 22.7% from 731.2p to 897.3p, compared with a rise of 16.9% in the FTSE World Europe Index, excluding the UK and adjusted to sterling.

Share price rose by 22.3% from 664.5p to 812.5p.

The Board is recommending an unchanged final dividend of 1.7p per share and has declared a special dividend of 6.6p to give a combined dividend of 8.3p. This compares with last year's combined dividend of 9.0p.