M&G's French cuts commodities as 2012 returns disappoint

M&G's Graham French has been selling down his exposure to commodities after falling prices and a ‘poorly managed' sector hit the performance of his Global Basics fund last year.

French, who has run the £5.2bn fund since 2000, apologised to investors for his performance last year after lagging the sector substantially. Global Basics has returned just over 1% over the past 12 months, leaving it bottom quartile of the IMA Global sector over that timeframe, as the majority of funds posted more significant gains. French's relatively large weighting to commodity plays hurt performance, particularly in May, when the fund dropped almost 8% as forced selling hurt resources prices. The manager acknowledged he should take "a bit of marginal criticism" for holding com...