Fund Objective

The Fund aims to achieve a high level of monthly income with prospects for capital growth.

View on Past Performance

UK equities fell sharply in September, reflecting concern about the global banking industry and the prospect of recession. Gilt yields dropped during the month - the benchmark UK 10-year gilt yield fell from 4.47% to 4.44%. Bank of England policymakers voted 8-1 in favour of the status quo at their interest rate setting meeting in early September. The dissenting member voted for a half-point cut from the 5% rate.Strong relative performances from defensive areas, particularly pharmaceuticals and food retailing, served the fund well during the month. We retain an overweight position in defensive areas such as utilities, pharmaceuticals and telecoms, while remaining underweight in financials, industrials and consumer-related areas.However, we have increased our exposure to interest rate sensitive areas. We added to National Express, HSBC and FirstGroup. We sold Land Securities and reduced our exposure to RSA and Standard Chartered.

Future Expectations

We are cautiously positioned, with a bias towards defensive sectors and large-cap stocks. Both should continue to benefit from deteriorating economic fundamentals and falling risk appetite.

Fund Details