SLI's Gibbs scraps shorts on Italian and Spanish debt

Standard Life Investments' Jonathan Gibbs has closed short positions in Italian and Spanish government debt following intervention from the European authorities.

The manager of the £740m Global Index-Linked Bond fund has moved from an underweight position to neutral on Italian and Spanish bonds following the ECB’s move to buy up the securities. Gibbs, whose fund is currently top quartile over one year, has had a negative view on peripheral Europe for several years, with an underweight position in Italy being a long-term play. However, recent developments have led the manager to revise his European strategy. “With the ECB coming in to buy Italian bonds, it would appear that rather than targeting the spread, they are targeting an absolute yield ...