Fund commentary
The WH Ireland Global Equity Fund, Class B, returned 1.23% in July 2026. All figures are presented in GBP.
During July 2026, global financial markets remained resilient despite continued geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty. Equity markets generally extended their gains, supported by strong corporate earnings expectations and continued investment in artificial intelligence and technology.
The macroeconomic backdrop remained mixed. Higher energy prices and geopolitical tensions created renewed inflation concerns, while economic activity remained relatively resilient. The Federal Reserve and European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged, with markets continuing to debate the timing and pace of future rate cuts.
Overall, July highlighted the resilience of risk assets, with strong corporate earnings and AI investment supporting equities despite higher bond yields, elevated valuations and persistent geopolitical risks.
At the fund level, Microsoft, Amazon and Mastercard were the main contributors to performance. Constellation Software and Veeva also delivered double digit gains. Halma, Intuitive Surgical and ASML were the main detractors.
Microsoft rallied following a strong fourth quarter, with revenue of $90.0 billion, up 17% year over year in constant currency and above the high end of guidance. The key highlight was Azure, where growth accelerated to 43%, materially ahead of 39.5% guidance, reflecting robust demand across traditional cloud and AI workloads. Microsoft Cloud revenue increased 27% to $59.3 billion, while remaining performance obligations rose 84% to $678 billion, providing significant visibility into future growth.
AI adoption is progressing rapidly, with Microsoft 365 Copilot exceeding 30 million paid seats. Strong Azure demand, increasing Copilot adoption and growing commercial bookings support our view that Microsoft is well positioned to monetise AI across its enterprise ecosystem.
The principal debate remains the level of capital expenditure required to support this growth. While AI infrastructure investment is putting pressure on near term margins and free cash flow, Azure remains capacity constrained and demand continues to exceed supply. We therefore believe aggressive investment remains appropriate. Notwithstanding the sharp rally, we continue to see meaningful upside in the shares.
Amazon delivered a strong second quarter, with revenue rising 20% year over year in constant currency to $200.6 billion and operating margin improving to 13.7%. AWS was the standout, with growth accelerating to 37%, driven by strong demand across traditional cloud and AI workloads. AWS revenue reached $42.2 billion, while operating margin increased to 39.4%, highlighting improving economics as scale increases. AI demand remains exceptionally strong, with generative AI capacity effectively subscribed through 2027 and AWS backlog rising over 100% to $496 billion. Advertising also performed strongly, growing 26% to $19.8 billion. Despite expected capital expenditure of approximately $220 billion, we believe investment remains justified by strong demand and AWS’s strategic importance.
With the earnings season drawing to a close, we are pleased to report that overall results have been very positive. Importantly, we continue to see attractive opportunities across the portfolio, with companies delivering results that reinforce our long term investment theses. We believe meaningful value remains across high quality businesses, with significant upside potential from current levels.
Monthly data as at: 31/07/2026.
