High yield: not the only option for long-only investors

ON BONDS

Rathbone's Bryn Jones says many parts of the fixed income universe warrant consideration.

Much is being made of the end of the corporate bond rally, but in our view, there are areas out there that still warrant consideration for the long-only investors, and with much less risk than the high-yield space. From a credit perspective, higher beta corporate bonds have underperformed in recent weeks, versus insurance and financials. The latter are the likely beneficiaries from higher interest rates, an argument that has been gaining traction in and among rhetoric from Bank of England. In this space, we continue to favour callable lower tier two financials on the back of Basel III, a...