A ‘lifestyle’ funds manager at F&C Investments has continued to increase his funds exposure to equities to reflect the company’s relatively upbeat assessment of the economic outlook.
Paul Carne who manages F&C’s range of four ‘lifestyle’ funds has reduced the funds exposure to cash and fixed income investments.
“Whilst we still see attractions in credit from an income perspective, bond yields have little scope for further contraction and we currently feel that equity markets offer greater scope for upside.
“This tactical shift was implemented through investing some of the cash allocation in the Defensive and Cautious portfolios and trimming the positions in M&G Strategic Bond and Invesco Perpetual Corporate Bond across the range,” Carne said.
This follows a move by Carne to sell out of Neil Woodford’s Invesco Perpetual High Income Fund believing a defensive stance adopted by Woodford was ‘at odds with our more upbeat assessment of the outlook from here at present.’
The proceeds from trading out of that fund were invested in Artemis Income, described as having one of the most consistent track records in the UK equity income sector.
Utilising favourable costs of investing in an ‘in-house’ offering, Carne has taken new positions in the F&C FTSE All-Share Tracker to try and take advantage of broad gains expected in the UK-listed equities.
As well as the Defensive and Cautious Lifestyle funds, F&C has Balanced and Growth Lifestyle funds.
In the Balanced and Growth funds, Carne has increased property exposure from its underweight share of the funds compared to the sector benchmarks used.
© Fair Investment Company Ltd