Volatility prompts Baillie Gifford to up equity weight

Baillie Gifford's Patrick Edwardson has been increasing equity exposure in the £370m Scottish American Investment trust during the recent market volatility.

The manager has trimmed some of his cash and bond holdings, redeploying into equities at attractive valuations. He prefers stocks offering exposure to emerging markets, either directly or indirectly. New additions to the fund include fast food giant McDonald's. "This is a large established company whose strength is the fact its franchise can be rolled out globally. There is a lot of underappreciated value in this stock," he says. "Generally there are going to be more McDonald's stores around the world, with the growth coming from countries like India and China." Edwardson has al...