Lazard's Flood 'open' to energy and financials if Trump keeps word on fiscal plans but taking wait and see approach

Concentrated portolio remains unchanged following election

Martin Flood, co-manager of the $333m Lazard US Equity Concentrated fund, said he would be "open-minded" on cyclicals like financials and energy if President-Elect Donald Trump follows through on his pre-election rhetoric, but added the economic impacts of his presidency are currently too speculative to position his portfolio around.

Flood said although his bottom-up portfolio of between 20-30 stocks tends to ignore benchmarks, with an average active share of 91.2%, he may reconsider his current 0% positions in financials and the energy sector if Trump is able to implement his plans to aggressively increase fiscal expenditure. He said he currently avoids financials because their return on equity is driven by high levels of leverage. However, Flood said he has yet to make any changes to his portfolio based around the result of last month's election because Trump's current lack of confirmed policies is yet to affect...