Fund of the week: 'It's all about not losing money'
The manager of this fund has won many fans for his 'tough, conservative approach'. His defensive fund returned 24.7% to investors in 2010 against a benchmark of 14.9%.
This year isn't going to be a one for investors, says Bruce Stout, manager of the Murray International Investment Trust (MYI). It will be "all about not losing money", he told Citywire. "Toothless" responses to the global financial crisis mean he expects "macro-economic uncertainty to feature prominently". He also predicts a stockmarket drop in the near future when the full extent of the world's financial problems hits home.
But for all this doom and gloom, investors in Stout's trust had a good year in 2010 when the fund returned 24.7% against a benchmark return of 14.9%. Because of his bearish views on the market, Stout is "wheeling the Murray juggernaut into a defensive position away from growth-sensitive cyclical businesses (such as industrial or commodity stocks) and into firms whose earnings are hopefully robust even if Western consumers endure many agonising, lean years", says Richard Dyson in The Mail on Sunday. As a result, the trust's top stocks include solid banks with an Asian presence, global tobacco firms that are looking towards emerging markets and companies with links to the energy sector.
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Murray International investment trust top ten holdings
