Rachel Beagles, a former chair of the Association of Investment Companies and Securities Trust of Scotland, is to run the board at Mercantile (MRC ) from next year when Andrew Gordon Lennox, the current chair of the £1.8bn JP Morgan mid-cap trust, retires.

Beagles, a former investment banker, has more than 15 years of experience in the investment company sector and joined Mercantile’s board three years ago. She is currently a non-executive director on the newly merged Alliance Witan (ALW ) and will replace Gordon Lennox when he steps down at Mercantile’s next annual general meeting after nine years.

Graham Kitchen, a former global head of equities at Janus Henderson and current chair of AVI Global (AGT ), will succeed Beagles as Mercantile’s senior independent director.

The board thanked Gordon Lennox, a former Cazenove partner, for his ‘wise counsel and committed leadership’ and said it was ‘delighted’ Beagles (pictured below) had accepted the appointment.

The announcement came in half-year results that showed Mercantile has been riding the rally in FTSE 250 stocks since last October. The portfolio of mid-cap stocks delivered a 17.6% total return in the six months to 31 July, beating the benchmark’s 15% return.

Its shares leapt 25.8% with dividends included as the gap between their price and the trust’s net asset value (NAV) narrowed from 12.6% to 6.8%, although the discount has since returned to 12.6%.

Mercantile shares have returned 30.4% in the past year but over three have delivered a zero return as political uncertainty and investor exodus from the UK weighed on mid-cap shares.

Gordon Lennox said it was ‘heartening’ to see the UK stock market benefiting from a resurgence in interest and that the board shared its fund managers’ optimism that the rebound was set to continue in 2024 and beyond.

Portfolio managers Guy Anderson and Anthony Lynch stated: ‘We believe we are in the early phases of a potential market recovery, with an improving domestic economic outlook and low valuations of UK-listed assets providing an exciting investment opportunity.’