Polar Capital's Davis: Why consumer staples are powering ahead in Europe

Positions in European consumer staples have outperformed in run up to the European Central Bank's quantitative easing programme, as investors look to mimic the highs of US and UK equity markets, according to Polar Capital's Nick Davis.

The manager of the group's recently launched European Income fund said the consumer staples sector had been a positive contributor to the portfolio as consumers are comforted by the support of the ECB printing money. "Investors in Europe have been trying to understand QE. They have looked to the US and the UK for parallels, which explains why consumer staples have done so well over the past three months," former Threadneedle manager Davis (pictured) said. The MSCI Europe Consumer Staples index returned 4.3% for the three months to 27 February, whereas the MSCI Europe returned just 1.9...