BlackRock's Plackett offers the case for small caps

UK Special Sits and UK Smaller Companies manager believes poor returns largely transitory, claiming small caps are among most resilient on offer

BlackRock's Richard Plackett has reasserted the case for small-cap stocks, claiming dire recent performance is transitory. Speaking at a Morningstar conference, the manager of the £718m UK Special Situations and £293m UK Smaller Companies funds said many of the most resilient companies are actually smaller caps. Over the last year, the FTSE 100 returned -2.1% over one year to 30 April while the Hoare Govett Smaller Companies plus Aim ex IT benchmark produced -19.8%. But Plackett said buying small and mid caps after periods of underperformance is an excellent strategy historically. ...