Limiting lean patches is secret to Rathbone Income's success

Sector focus: UK Equity Income

All the top funds in the UK Equity Income sector have had spells of underperformance over the past five years but the most consistent overall were those that kept such troughs to a minimum

The top performing managers in the UK Equity Income sector have all had periods of underperformance in the last five years but some of these have managed to limit the length of such bouts significantly. Of the 64 funds in the sector with a five-year record to 1 June only one, the Rathbone Income portfolio, has managed to produce top quartile returns for each discrete year period. This consistently strong performance led the £286m portfolio to return 47.61%, bid to bid over the timeframe to 1 May 2004, nearly 8% more than its nearest rival. Year by year the fund looks consistent but with...