Japan and tech funds join Scottish Mortgage and Pershing Square in global rout

With the US stock market poised for further falls this afternoon, investors looked for the dust to settle before moving in on potential investment company bargains.

Today’s sharp falls in UK and global equities were replicated in many investment trusts. Tellingly the early morning sell-off was not generally followed by a bounce as investors waited to see if the sell-off we’ve seen in August so far continues or turns out to be a summer squall.

Investors will also need tomorrow’s net asset value (NAV) updates to determine the size of any share price discounts on listed equity funds. Already it looks like the narrowing in the average investment company discount to 12% we saw in Trust Watch on Friday will have unwound.