Hargreaves cuts Martin Currie Global Alpha from 150

Hargreaves Lansdown has dropped Martin Currie's Global Alpha fund from its Wealth 150 list, citing lagging relative performance and poor stock selection.

The firm said it originally included the £27m fund on the list of its favourite products for new investment because of Martin Currie's "superb" long-term track record managing global funds.

However, Hargreaves says the fund has struggled since the start of the credit crunch and although it delivered positive returns in 2009, it has continued to lag behind its peers.

"In particular, our research indicates that the fund suffered from poor stock selection in 2009," Hargreaves senior analyst Meera Patel says.

"Two holdings were especially detrimental. The first was US healthcare company CVS Caremark, whose deteriorating prospects the team at Martin Currie failed to identify. The second was National Bank of Greece, whose shares fell on the back of the country's debt problems. Both companies have since been sold from the portfolio.

"At this stage we are not suggesting investors sell the fund - Martin Currie's approach is well established and we expect it to do well over the longer term."

Patel says the fund has recently been positioned to benefit from the improving prospects of the technology sector, and also has a bias towards the financial sector, including banks.

"The managers, James Fairweather and Neil Robson feel this positioning will enable the fund to prosper in the current environment, and encouragingly there have been signs of a pick-up in performance this year," Patel adds.

"However, this has been over a very short timeframe following a longer period of underperformance, and we would like to see more consistent returns before suggesting new money is invested in the fund."