Mughal shifts focus on Melchior US fund

Dalton SP's Nabeel Mughal has cut consumer discretionary stocks and piled the cash into industrials on fears over the strength of US consumer spending.

The manager of the Melchior North American Opportunities fund has taken his portfolio’s weighting to industrials up to almost five percentage points above the S&P 500 benchmark, representing its highest sector overweight. This move was funded by reducing the eight percentage point overweight to the index in consumer discretionary stocks to bring it closer in line with the benchmark. “We took down our exposure to consumer discretionary as we expect the increase in payroll taxes in the US to hit consumer spending,” Mughal said. He has recently sold out of a 2% position in Ultra Salon...