"The increase in the interim dividend is extremely welcome, especially in a low interest rate world," Stephen Peters, investment trust analyst at Charles Stanley said.
"The trust continues to raise money by issuing shares at a premium, one of few trusts that is able to do so," he added.
Net asset value (NAV) at Murray International rose to 786.5p in the six months to 30 June 2010, up from 772.9p at the end of the previous half. The trust's share price rose by 7.8 per cent in the period.
The trust's largest holdings include Unilever Indonesia and Taiwan Mobile, companies which are more often found in a Global Emerging Markets sector portfolio than a Global Growth fund.
"The manager is unremittingly negative about the prospects for many western economies and shares, preferring to buy Asian and emerging markets growth, as well as buying some high dividend yielding stocks and being 'paid to wait' for performance from them," Peters explained.
The trust has been managed since 2004 by Bruce Stout, who was previously an emerging markets manager for Murray Johnstone, before Aberdeen acquired the group in 2000.
"Murray International is a success story among the Global Growth and Income sector," Simon Elliott, investment trust analyst at Winterflood Securities said.
"The manager has a well-earned high reputation, which is one of the reasons it continues to trade at a premium," he added.
Murray International was trading at a premium of 8.4 per cent as of 5 August 2010.
"The trust has a high premium to NAV. My view is that, whilst investment trusts should be sold at high premiums to NAV, I see little reason why that premium will revert any time soon. In my opinion buying this trust even at these levels should outperform other trusts on wider discounts with managers who aren’t as good," Peters said.
Murray International Trust vs sector over 1-yr
Source: Financial Express Analytics
While the trust has outperformed its Global Growth and Income sector over one year, its three year performance is more impressive; it returned 49.3 per cent compared to the sector's three per cent return.
Performance of Murray International Trust vs sector over 3-yr
Source: Financial Express Analytics
Murray International is one of the highest performing trusts in its sector over both a one and three year period, and also one of the most consistent performers. Over three years, it was outperformed by Ruffer Investment Company, but the latter's performance has flagged over one year. Over a one year time frame Murray International did not return as much as Eclectic Investment Trust or Scottish American Investment Company, but both of those trusts do not fare as well in the long term.
"Even though the stock looks a bit expensive at an eight per cent premium, I would still expect investors who bought in to it now to get a good return on their investment," Elliott said.