Buyers eye style-agnostic funds over ‘dogmatic' managers

Fund selectors have begun to move away from ‘dogmatic' equity funds that favour either growth or value investment approaches to focus on more balanced equivalents.

Over the past year equity markets have seen a rotation in performance, as so-called ‘growth’ stocks that performed strongly over the previous few years lost momentum, giving way to ‘value’ plays. Last summer, many fund buyers began to rotate their equity exposure from growth to value plays, as the latter began to pull ahead after years of underperformance, most notably in the US. The trend was also apparent in Europe: by the end of 2013 European equity funds focusing on value stocks, such as Invesco Perpetual European Equity Income and Cazenove European Income, surged ahead of their g...