Barnett cuts Woodford holdings in Edinburgh IT as discount widens

Mark Barnett has cut some of former manager Neil Woodford's favourite holdings in the £1.4bn Edinburgh investment trust, adding 14 new stocks since the beginning of the year.

The manager has cut positions in AstraZeneca, BT Group, Capita, GlaxoSmithKline and ReckittBenckiser, and has made new investments in Babcock International, Beazley, BP, Brown (N), CLS, Compass, Derwent London, KCOM, London Stock Exchange, NewRiver Retail, Reed Elsevier, Shaftesbury, Thomas Cook and Vectura. The trust returned 12.5% at NAV for the year to 31 March, beating the benchmark FTSE All Share return of 8.8% over the period. However, the departure of Neil Woodford left a dent in the company’s share price, with the discount moving from 1.7% to 5.4%. On a share price basis, t...