Defensives offer 50% more divi yield than overall market

ON UK INCOME

Newton's Tineke Frikkee explains how the defensive sectors have helped boost the performance of the UK equity income sector.

As a group, defensive stocks have started Q2 2011 strongly. Here we find many high yielding sectors such as food producers, food retailers, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications and utilities. As a result the IMA UK equity income sector has put in a strong performance, up 3% compared to the FTSE All Share up 1.8% from 31 March 2011 to 19 May 2011. Within this, generally the more defensively positioned funds have moved to a first quartile ranking for the period. Investors appear to have become increasingly concerned about softening economic lead indicators, the approaching end o...