SW ethical mandate hurt by forced underweights

Johnny Russell highlights underweight positions in mining and oil, and overweights in financials, as behind tough 2007

Swip handed over the £230m SW Environmental Investor mandate to current manager Johnny Russell in June 2007 with Northern Rock in the portfolio. Previous manager Joel Marks left Russell a banking and financials overweight when he departed last year after 10 months at the helm. Performance on the 18-year-old fund took a hit from this last year, losing 8.08% compared to FTSE All-Share's 5.32%. Since taking over, Russell has reduced banking exposure and sold out of Northern Rock entirely. He believes the inability to invest in runaway mining and oil stories because of the ethical scre...