Neptune’s Felix Wintle has reduced the number of holdings in his US Opportunities fund to avoid diluting returns in the coming months.
A bullish Wintle cut the number of positions in the portfolio from 66 to 55 over the past six weeks, while the portfolio is also now fully invested.
"We believe the macro data coming out of the US, China, Europe and Japan will continue to beat expectations and corporate earnings will surprise investors to the upside," Wintle says.
"These factors support our view that the most likely direction for global stock markets is upwards for the remainder of 2009."
The manager says his portfolio is positioned for a continuation in the rally.
"We sold our discount store holdings, including Wal-Mart, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree, an area where we made good profits at the beginning of year as the US consumer traded down in response to the poor economic environment," Wintle says.
"Using the proceeds from these sales, we have remained in the consumer discretionary sector, where we are double-weighted versus the S&P 500, and added a number of mid-range and luxury brands, such as American Eagle and Coach."
Wintle also cut healthcare exposure from 20% to 11% over the past two months.
"While we like the sector and believe many companies will benefit from Obama's reforms, it is ultimately a defensive industry and therefore not best positioned to take advantage of the continuation of the rally," Wintle adds.
