Littlewood boosts long equity exposure

Artemis Strategic Assets manager William Littlewood increased his fund's net equity exposure by over 10% last month after buying into market weakness and closing short positions in the mining sector.

Strategic Assets moved from 59% net long in equities to almost 70% in February, after the manager deployed some of the fund’s high cash weighting into the markets during the brief correction early last month. Overseas shares now account for 28% of Strategic Assets’ equity element, with Littlewood recently boosting exposure to American stocks. Littlewood also cut short equity positions in the £389.3m fund from 9% to 6%, mainly due to a closing of most of his mining shorts following widespread falls for the sector early last month. The manager says he could revisit mining shorts in the ...