UK equities remained extremely volatile during the third quarter, with two very powerful forces working against each other. The pull on the downside came from persistently poor economic newsflow, profit downgrades and extremely fragile confidence in the banking sector.On the other hand, however, there were some signs that the value in a variety of names has begun to be recognised and that fundamentals are starting to become more of a focus. Our portfolio has performed relatively well in this challenging environment, with considerable outperformance over the past few months.A large proportion of this has come from our lack of exposure to the mining sector, but we have also benefited appreciably from our pharmaceutical names and our more recently established positions in general retailers.
We believe that the outperformance that our holdings have generated in recent months has done little to correct the significant gap between current share prices and our view of these companies' intrinsic value. We remain confident that the portfolio is well-positioned to deliver extremely attractive returns for investors over the longer term.