Why Rathbones' Stick is dipping a toe back into miners

Carl Stick, manager of the £504m Rathbone Income fund, has bought back into the mining sector for the first time in a number of years, initiating a small position in Rio Tinto.

Stick (pictured), who is still underweight the sector compared to peers, has been avoiding miners due the sector's historically poor capital allocation, which has led to a number of asset writedowns from key players in the space since the credit crisis. However, Stick said Rio Tinto has been showing signs of investing more capital back into its business in the last six months, as opposed to pursuing an acquisition led approach. "I have been avoiding the sector due to not being comfortable with the capital allocation of many of the miners, which in some case has been appalling," he sai...