Deep Dive: UK smaller companies remain an 'uncomfortable trade'

Upsides still distant

UK smaller companies may be cheaper than they have been in two decades, but investors continue to be wary of a domestic market still suffering from Brexit and the pandemic, along with a recession on the horizon.

While the FTSE 100 enjoyed escaping 2022 as one of the few indices in the green, returning 4.7% to investors, the mid-cap FTSE 250 lost 17.4% over the period and the AIM dropped 30.7%, according to data from FE fundinfo. The combination of international firms, mega-cap companies and oil and gas giants pushed the UK's blue chip index somewhat skyward, but the overhang of the past decade did not benefit the UK's smaller companies. Investor forum warns of UK equities' 'diminished importance' Fahad Hassan, CIO of Albemarle Street Partners, explained: "The last decade has seen the UK ec...