ABERDEEN Japan Investment Trust achieved a 12.6 per cent total return on net asset value in the year to March, outperforming its benchmark as it reaped the benefits of a currency hedge as sterling strengthened.

The trust, managed by Standard Life Aberdeen, cited a 3.5% gain on the currency hedge. This enabled it to record a total return which was significantly ahead of one of 8.2% on its Topix benchmark.

Aberdeen Japan chairman Neil Gaskell said: “The market, as a whole, has been buoyed by optimistic buying, boosting quality and non-quality stocks alike.”

He noted, since the change in the trust’s mandate in late 2013 to Japan-only, its total return had been 88.3%. The return on the Topix over the same period was 71.7%.