Newton's Wilmot underweights financials and miners on Asia fears

Richard Wilmot is underweight financials and mining stocks in his Newton Higher Income fund on fears about the impact of the underperformance of Chinese and wider Asian markets.

Since Wilmot took over the £2.3bn fund from Tineke Frikkee in December 2012, he has widened its investment universe to include geographies outside the UK but is steering clear of stocks exposed to Asia. The Asian market has suffered over the past month with the MSCI Asia ex Japan index down 10%, dragged down by the sell-off in Chinese stocks on fears over a potential credit crunch. Wilmot said: "The financial stocks we do not own are primarily banks with particular exposure to Asia and the European market, and the miners are also affected by the situation in China." However, Wilmot...