Performance at month end

Merrill Lynch UK Inv Tst PLC
17 April 2001


MONTHLY PERFORMANCE

MERRILL LYNCH UK INVESTMENT TRUST plc

All information is at 30 March 2001 and unaudited.

Performance at month end with net income reinvested

                      One month  Three months One year  Three years  Five years

Net asset value           -8.2%        -13.4%   -17.5%        -7.6%       48.1%

Share price               -8.5%        -10.6%    -6.3%       -15.6%       35.4%

FTSE All-Share Index      -5.0%         -8.4%   -10.8%         4.7%       68.4%


At month end

Net asset value*                                          1050.40p

Share price                                               967.50p

Discount                                                  7.9%

Total assets                                              £187.8m

Net Yield                                                 3.1%

Gearing:                                                  26.8%

Effective gearing of Company                              26.4%

Value of debt:                                            £40.0m

Ordinary shares in issue                                  14,093,562

(There were no share repurchases during the month)

*Includes current year net revenue.

UK Sectors                                                          % Portfolio

Financials                                                                 25.7

Non-Cyclical Services                                                      18.0

Cyclical Services                                                          17.4

Non-Cyclical Consumer Goods                                                14.4

Resources                                                                  10.4

General Industrials                                                         4.4

Basic Industries                                                            4.0

Utilities                                                                   3.7

Information Technology                                                      1.7

Net current assets                                                          0.3


Total                                                                     100.0




Ten Largest Equity Investments                                 % of Investments

Vodafone                                                                    8.1

GlaxoSmithKline                                                             7.2

BP Amoco                                                                    6.3

Barclays                                                                    5.5

AstraZeneca                                                                 5.3

Royal Bank of Scotland                                                      4.5

Shell Transport and Trading Co                                              2.7

Royal & Sun Alliance                                                        2.7

HSBC                                                                        2.3

Boots                                                                       2.2

Total                                                                      46.8


The Trust's gearing (c.26%) has had the effect of exaggerating recent poor
stockmarket returns. The UK stockmarket, and global stockmarkets in general,
have continued to suffer from negative earnings news flow, associated with the
slowdown in the rate of global economic growth.

We increased the Trust's representation in cyclical and interest rate
sensitive sectors, favouring companies exposed to UK demand. This was
primarily achieved by adding to general retailers (through Marks & Spencer,
Debenhams and Boots) and building & construction shares. We established
positions in Balfour Beatty, Taylor Woodrow and Crest Nicholson during March.

Our choice of shares in the banking sector was strong. We emphasised UK-demand
orientated firms, favouring Royal Bank of Scotland on the belief that
restructuring would support its earnings. In addition, the Trust benefited
from our favour for Barclays, which performed strongly, and our underweight
position in HSBC. The Trust's significant position in Prudential adversely
affected short-term returns, after it announced plans to make an acquisition
in the US. This was negatively received by shareholders but (since the end of
the period) another bidder has now emerged, and Prudential has recovered some
lost ground.

We maintained our overweight stance in pharmaceuticals shares. Our confidence
in management's ability to achieve operational targets, within a framework of
prudent financial management, resulted in a favour for AstraZeneca over
GlaxoSmithKline. Nycomed Amersham adversely affected returns, after plans to
list its biotechnology business on NASDAQ failed. However, we believe that the
outlook for the company's important imaging business remains robust.

Within the new economy, performance was mixed. The Trust has benefited from
maintaining a low representation in technology shares. However, exposure to
some smaller shares in the media sector, such as Hit Entertainment and
Chrysalis, had a negative impact on performance during March. Hit
entertainment's share price suffered after it completed an acquisition during
March. Chrysalis (the owner of Heart FM) suffered in sympathy with Capital
Radio, which issued a second profit warning. We benefited from our underweight
position in telecoms overall, although returns were negatively impacted as a
result of our long held significant position in Telewest.

Sources: Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, Standard & Poor's Micropal

Latest information is available by typing www.mlim.co.uk/its on the internet,
'MLIMINDEX' on Reuters, 'MLIM' on Bloomberg or '8800' on Topic 3 (ICV
terminal).

17 April 2001

ENDS