When it comes to UK companies, boring is beautiful

When was the last time you woke up in the middle of the night worried you had not bought enough baked beans? Or the last time you saw Unilever on the front page of a tabloid? Probably never.

This highlights my point that consumer staples and the companies that make them are dull. The financial results are also boring, being as predictable as the products' taste and smell. But when it comes to investing, boring is beautiful. Thus the consumer staples sector is the market's star performer, over almost any investment period.   The sector has historically traded at a two P/E points premium to the market. Recently, however, that premium has grown to five points. The MSCI Consumer Staples index now trades at 24x earnings, a level last seen in the late 1990s/early 2000s. This...