Performance at month end

Merrill Lynch UK Inv Tst PLC
14 May 2001


MONTHLY PERFORMANCE

MERRILL LYNCH UK INVESTMENT TRUST plc

All information is at 30 April 2001 and unaudited.

Performance at month end with net income reinvested
                      One month  Three months One year  Three years  Five years
Net asset value            8.9%         -8.2%    -7.7%        -0.4%       54.9%
Share price                7.8%         -7.9%    10.9%        -9.1%       37.5%
FTSE All-Share Index       6.0%         -4.4%     -2.2        10.5%       71.4%


At month end
Net asset value*                                          1143.82p
Share price                                               1042.50p
Discount                                                  8.9%
Total assets                                              £199.3m
Net Yield                                                 2.9%
Gearing:                                                  24.7%
Effective gearing of Company                              22.5%
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 of 9.85p
UK Sectors                                                          % Portfolio
Financials                                                                 25.9
Cyclical Services                                                          21.6
Non-Cyclical Services                                                      15.2
Non-Cyclical Consumer Goods                                                13.0
Resources                                                                  11.1
Basic Industries                                                            4.4
Utilities                                                                   2.8
General Industrials                                                         2.7
Information Technology                                                      1.5
Net current assets                                                          1.8

Total                                                                     100.0




Ten Largest Equity Investments                                 % of Investments
Vodafone                                                                    6.5
BP Amoco                                                                    6.5
GlaxoSmithKline                                                             6.3
Barclays                                                                    5.4
AstraZeneca                                                                 4.9
Royal Bank of Scotland                                                      4.3
HSBC                                                                        3.5
Shell Transport and Trading Co                                              2.7
Royal & Sun Alliance                                                        2.0
WPP                                                                         1.9

Total                                                                      44.0



Update commentary

Merrill Lynch UK Investment Trust Net Asset Value (NAV) rose by 8.9% in April
2001, outperforming the benchmark, FTSE All Share, index by 2.9%. Gearing
augmented the Trust's return, in a month when the UK stockmarket performed
strongly.

An unexpected US interest rate cut increased expectations that the US economy
would avoid a protracted slowdown in the rate of economic growth, which caused
US shares in general, and the technology-heavy US NASDAQ Index in particular,
to rally significantly. Investor sentiment towards growth-orientated
(technology, media and telecoms 'TMT') shares improved globally.

The Trust's holdings in the telecoms sector had a positive impact on
performance. We favoured the shares that had been most sharply de-rated during
the previous period of poor investor sentiment, the emerging telecoms
carriers. We emphasised Colt Telecom, Energis and Telewest, all of which
outperformed in their sector. Within the IT software sector, our holding in
Eidos also performed well.

However, our positioning within pharmaceuticals was less successful, and the
Trust suffered as a result of our emphasis on AstraZeneca, during a period
when investor sentiment shifted away from typically defensive areas towards
TMT.

In the banking sector, we neutralised our underweight position in mortgage
banks, by adding to Abbey National. Banks exposed to demand in the
Asia-Pacific region rallied after US interest rates were unexpectedly cut by
0.50% on 18 April, and returns were aided by our emphasis on Standard
Chartered. However, performance suffered because the Trust remained
underweight in HSBC Holdings. Also in the financials area, the Trust benefited
from positions in Close Brothers and Amvescap, both of which rallied strongly
because of the correlation between their earnings and stockmarket returns.

Going forward, we remain cautious when assessing the attractiveness of shares
in the new economy. Within TMT, the media sector currently appears to contain
the highest concentration of attractive investment opportunities.



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).

11 April 2001