Invesco Perpetual's Barnett: It will be hard to replicate the past year's returns

Sterling devaluation 'overdone'

Invesco Perpetual's Mark Barnett has sounded a "note of caution" on UK equity returns in 2017, warning they will not replicate the 25% gain seen over the past year, particularly as his team now believes sterling looks "significantly undervalued".

The head of UK equities (pictured) and manager of the group's £11bn High Income and £5.5bn Income funds said in a webinar with fellow manager Martin Walker, who runs £1.2bn UK Growth fund, that the UK market has had a "great 12 months" driven by improvements in the earnings backdrop, sterling's devaluation following the Brexit vote and increased levels of optimism towards the end of the year. Over the past year to 21 March, the FTSE All-Share index has returned 22.6% while the FTSE 100 is up 24.1%. Invesco Perpetual's Barnett steps down from Keystone IT; Goldstone to take over Barn...