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UK Fund Manager Gets Defensive, UK Stocks in Bear Market
Tom Burroughes
9 July 2008
The blue-chip
“We have not held house builders, cut most of our exposure to miners and have had very little exposure to sectors such as general retail, travel and leisure,” said Ted Scott, who manages the F&C UK Growth & Income Fund. Mr Scott has work to do. His fund has underperformed the wider stock market over the past year, falling by 15.62 per cent in the 12 months to the end of May, compared with a -7.12 per cent total return figure for the FTSE All Share, according to Citywire data. It oversees £147.5 million ($290.8 million) of assets. “We have also reduced our exposure to small caps compared to the fund’s historic profile. On the flip side we have favoured stocks with resilient earnings profiles – which will justifiably be able to command premium ratings - and gone overweight defensive sectors such as utilities, telecoms and tobacco,” he said. “Over recent months the
However, Mr Scott said that although the FTSE 100 Index of major