Troy's Harries: We are 'towards the cautious end of cautious'

Global Income fund overweight in mega-cap US stocks

The Troy Trojan Global Income fund has been positioned "towards the cautious end of cautious" since before the global coronavirus pandemic, according to its manager James Harries, who said a torrid combination of central bank policy, fully-valued markets and elevated levels of debt led to an overweight in high-quality mega-cap US growth stocks and consumer staples.

This has fortuitously stood the manager in good stead as the Covid-19 crisis has continued to weigh on global equity markets, with the £263m fund achieving top-quartile returns over six months and one year of 3.4% and 7.1% respectively, while its average peer in the IA Global sector has lost a respective 5.4% and 1.5%, according to data from FE fundinfo. While many stocks in the portfolio may appear expensive, Harries said the divergence in performance between the high-quality growth companies that have proven resilient, and volatile cyclicals, will remain "a persistent feature of market...