Can financials trump consumer staples for income?

The consumer staples sector has long provided a solid building block for many income portfolios, but F&C's Phil Doel says there are better options in unloved financials now.

Consumer staples are giant constituents in indices and present themselves as potential long-term holdings, capable of consistently generating cash and paying attractive and reliable dividends. Ass a result they have provided increasingly popular and in the long term, these attractions remain intact, but over the shorter term we are now more cautious. This is because share values have been driven higher by investors seeking routes into growing consumption across emerging markets. In an environment in which there are question marks over the strength of this growth and currencies are inc...