Europe's deflation fears, US housing market and India optimism

Fund managers give their views on the key issues impacting global asset classes and outline how they are positioning portfolios.

  Richard Bullas on UK Growth Despite the strength of the UK smaller companies asset class over the past six months, it remains one of the worst performing over the past 12 months. This has, however, left valuations in this area of the market looking attractive relative to their larger counterparts. To put this into perspective the FTSE Small Cap index is currently trading on a 12-month forward price/earnings multiple of 13.0x (excluding resources and financials). This compares with the FTSE All-Share trading on 17.8x and the FTSE 250 on 16.3x. This is a 27% valuation discount.   ...