Stopford bullish on linkers as investors snap-up £6bn sale

Investec's John Stopford believes UK index-linked gilts continue to offer good value after the DMO raised £6bn in a sale of the securities yesterday.

Demand for the linkers hit £9.8bn, despite concerns pension fund indexing changes from RPI to CPI would dampen investor confidence. The 0.625 percent 2040 index-linked bond was priced at a yield of 1.02%, more than a quarter of a percentage point higher than its launch price at the beginning of the year. Stopford, the Investec Asset Management head of fixed income, has a number of large UK index-linked bond positions in his £360.5m Total Return fund, a product aiming to produce a positive return over the long-term regardless of market condition. "UK inflation-linked bonds offer goo...