Alliance Trust has underperformed against its most appropriate benchmark the world index, Hargreaves Lansdown has said.

While the investment trust had matched the 53per cent return over five years for the average fund in the global growth sector, a more suitable benchmark would be the long-term record against the world index, the broker says. Over 10 years Alliance had returned 124 per cent against 150 per cent for the index. Its discount above 12 per cent compared with an average 5per cent for its peer group, but was narrower than its own historic average of 14per cent.