Performance at Month End

Merrill Lynch UK Inv Tst PLC
13 August 2001


MONTHLY PERFORMANCE

MERRILL LYNCH UK INVESTMENT TRUST plc

All information is at 31 July 2001 and unaudited.

Performance at month end with net income reinvested

                             One    Three        One      Three        Five
                           month   months       year      years       years

Net asset value            -3.9%   -10.4%     -15.6%      -7.2%       43.1%

Share price                -6.2%   -11.2%     -10.2%     -18.0%       32.0%
                                                        
FTSE All-Share Index       -2.3%    -6.7%     -10.9%       4.6%       65.3%
                                                         

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

At month end

Net asset value*                                         1015.40p

Share price:                                             916.50p

Discount:                                                9.7%

Total assets:                                            £181.9m

Net Yield:                                               3.3%

Gearing:                                                 27.7%

Effective gearing:                                       28.5%

Value of debt:                                           £39.5m

Ordinary shares in issue:                                14,093,562


(There were no share repurchases during the month)
*Includes current year net revenue of 5.20p.

UK Sectors                                                          % Portfolio

Cyclical Services                                                          24.4

Financials                                                                 23.3

Non-Cyclical Consumer Goods                                                15.7

Resources                                                                  14.6

Non-Cyclical Services                                                      10.7

Basic Industries                                                            5.4

General Industrials                                                         3.1

Utilities                                                                   2.9

Information Technology                                                      0.5

Net current assets                                                        (0.6)

Total                                                                     100.0


Ten Largest Equity Investments
Company
                                                                  % Investments
BP Amoco                                                                    8.2

GlaxoSmithKline                                                             6.7

Barclays                                                                    5.4

Royal Bank of Scotland                                                      5.4

AstraZeneca                                                                 5.3

Vodafone                                                                    4.0

Shell Transport and Trading Co                                              2.9

British Telecom                                                             2.9

HSBC                                                                        2.5

Safeway                                                                     1.8

Total                                                                      45.1


Update commentary

UK Stockmarket Review

The second quarter earnings season continued to weigh on the stockmarket,
particularly the technology and telecoms sectors, and sentiment towards the
prospects for an early economic recovery took a further knock, leading to the
underperformance of certain cyclical sectors.

Fund Performance Review

The Company's Net Asset Value (NAV) fell by 3.9% during July, underperforming
the falling FTSE All Share Index, partly because of the impact of gearing in a
declining stockmarket. Our overweight stance in retailers and construction,
and our choice of shares within telecoms had an adverse effect on relative
returns, although this was partially offset by stock selection with media and
our relatively light representation in technology hardware and software
shares.

Our holding in Balfour Beatty suffered in particular, as a result of adverse
press concerning public finance initiative (PFI) and news of Laing's
additional provisioning ahead of the disposal of its construction business.
Although this initially caused investors to question the robustness of balance
sheets elsewhere in the sector, we maintained our favour for the construction
sector on the belief that these fears lacked substance. We took the
opportunity to compliment our overweight position in these shares, by adding
to Hanson, which we expect to benefit from infrastructure spending in the US
and UK.

Relative performance benefited from our significant underweight stance in
technology hardware and software shares. However, although we were also
significantly underweight in telecoms, stock selection in this area was
sub-optimal during the month. We were underweight in Vodafone and broadly
neutrally positioned in British Telecom.

The Trust was well represented in media shares, and Granada and BSkyB
performed well, while Nycomed Amersham (healthcare) also performed well, on
the strength of its important imaging business.

Outlook

In our view, the UK economy is relatively well placed. Real interest rates are
still high, which indicates to us that there remains scope to cut rates
further if the economy shows signs of deteriorating. Our cyclical exposure has
been increased this year, and is likely to be enhanced further if signs of
recovery reinforce our conviction regarding the prospects for economic upturn
into 2002.

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).

8 August 2001