Jupiter European fund makes cyclical move

24 February 2012 10:00 am | By Joanne Ellul

Jupiter European special situations manager Cedric de Fonclare plans to move 10 per cent of the £551m European special situations fund into cyclicals over the next six months.

The fund is currently 70 per cent invested in defensive growth stocks and 30 per cent in cyclicals, which will rise to 40 per cent by moving out of healthcare and into industrials.

Fonclare says he has already started to add at the margins to more cyclical companies such as duty-free operator Dufry and tyre producer Nokian Tyres.

He says: “I want to tilt the balance of the portfolio between high-growth business and add slowly according to companies that are more affected by economic recovery worldwide.

“We have seen evidence of a recovery, with North America doing better than expected. This is a positive argument for equities and for European equities which are trading at a discount due to the eurozone crisis and where trading volumes in the European market have not been strong.”

Bestinvest senior analyst Ben Seager-Scott says: “For a contrarian manager, there could be benefits from rotating on to a slightly more aggressive footing but it is a tough one to call.”

If you enjoyed this article, sign up here to receive daily email updates from Money Marketing and Follow @_moneymarketing