Murphy sees stability in defensives but does not discount UK recovery

OMAM manager rotates fund out of industrials into ‘stable and predictable' businesses

Old Mutual’s Simon Murphy is rotating out of industrial stocks and into more defensive names, but is not ruling out an improvement in the UK economy. The manager of the £105m UK Select Equity fund says he has taken profit from industrial names on the back of strong performance. “I moved into the sector last year when these stocks were out of favour for two reasons. Firstly, there is usually an aggressive restocking following a recession and secondly, I believed a large proportion of economic growth could come from capital expenditure rather than consumer spending,” he says. “The we...