Beagles turns attention to domestic ‘laggards'

Clive Beagles, manager of the £1.3bn JO Hambro Capital Management UK Equity Income fund, is continuing to back UK domestic names, throwing his weight behind unpopular "market laggards" Tesco and Halfords.

The manager has been adding to such names throughout the year with Tesco among the top ten most active stocks, amounting to 3.3% of the fund. He has also reintroduced Halfords to the portfolio. “The domestic names have done well as the past few weeks have been characterised by improving UK consumer activity, whether that is in confidence numbers or car sales,” he said. Beagles, who has about 45% in small- and mid-cap names, has backed Tesco since well before the retailer’s January profit warning, and said the stock had now been valued for “terminal decline”, despite showing early sign...