Alliance Trust, the FTSE 100-listed investment company, has bought back shares for the first time in its 121-year history.

The company spent £15.4m ($24.6m) to buy back 0.72 per cent of its share capital at 317p a share. Although this represented a discount to net asset value of 18 per cent, the shares are trading at their highest level in a year after a rally in equity markets.