Contrarian HSBC GIF European Alpha Equity shorts mining stocks

HSBC has launched its GIF European Alpha Equity fund with its largest short exposure to the materials sector, including miners, which the manager thinks are overvalued.

The fund is short materials by 7.3%. Other short positions include 1.4% in IT and 0.2% in consumer discretionary. Fund manager Vis Nayar says the fund’s investment strategy means positioning is often contrarian. “We are trying to identify robust earnings, and companies which have steady incomes. These tend to be companies which investors view as boring, so they are overlooked,” he says. “Companies such as Nestle and AstraZeneca have strong earnings and attractive valuations. “However, we think a sector like materials is a little bit expensive in regards to our measure of robust ...