Helfer bolsters weighting to energy in HSBC Russia fund

HSBC's Douglas Helfer, manager of the £240m GIF Russia Equity fund, has boosted his overweight position in energy since the start of the year, funded by profit-taking in materials.

Helfer has taken his energy position to 44.5%, versus 38.4% in the benchmark, after reducing materials exposure, to 21% versus the index 28.6%. He says: “Following very strong performance in the steel and mining sectors, we have started taking profits and moving toward neutral to moderately underweight, depending on the sub-sector, as the once-attractive valuation gaps have closed versus other global peers. “We continue to find attractively priced companies in energy, where we have been overweight for some time and we have used profits from the materials sectors to further increase ou...