Uncertain UK outlook prompts Donnelly to cut sterling weight

Wheb’s Nicola Donnelly has halved her fund’s exposure to sterling because of the UK’s uncertain economic outlook.

The manager reduced holdings at the beginning of February, dropping the cash position to 10% from 20% and reducing equity exposure to from 15% to 7%.

The proceeds were put primarily into US equities, pushing its weighting to 40% in the £14m Sustainability fund.

“We decided to cut our sterling exposure when it became clear the Tories were not keeping their punchy lead ahead of Labour and the possibility of a hung parliament became more likely,” she says.

“We had raised cash as a defensive position, but at the start of February we starting reducing this.”

Donnelly introduced a 2.5% position in Johnson Controls, which fits in to the fund’s growth theme of demographics. She also added to existing positions in Davita, EnerNOC and Itron.

The fund is now equally split between demographics, climate change and water.

“We picked companies in the demographic space as we now have a much clearer idea of what will be in President Obama’s healthcare bill. These are companies that have really stable revenues,” she says.