Top-quartile Stopford shifts focus into investment grade corporates

Investec manager expects equities to pick up as he keeps his zero default record

Investec's John Stopford says he has recently shifted his focus towards investment grade corporates but is continuing his track record of zero defaults within the portfolio. The £161m Sterling Bond fund, which is top-quartile over one, three and five years, according to Lipper, is currently ranked 14 out of 58 peers in the IMA £ Strategic Bond sector. It has returned -3.7% against its sector average of -15.8% over one year to 28 February and -2% and 1.3% over three and five years annualised, compared to -6.3% and -1.2% for the sector. Stopford believes the recent quantitative easing m...