Alliance Trust, the UK investment trust company, has reported its total shareholder return for the first quarter of 2013 stands at 15.2 per cent - its best first quarter performance in over 15 years.

This was partly fuelled by outperformance of global equities, said the firm, and in local currency terms, the MSCI All Country World Index is up 8.6 per cent year-to-date, but 14.1 per cent in sterling terms.

Meanwhile the fund’s net asset value total return, with debt at fair value and inclusive of income, stood at 13.6 per cent.

Over the quarter, the best performing sectors were healthcare, up 22.3 per cent, consumer staples, up 19.5 per cent, and consumer discretionary, up 16.4 per cent. Sterling weakened, which led to a positive impact on the portfolio as less than one quarter of the Trust's equity exposure was held in the UK.