JPM's Hart: Why I sat out consumer staples boom

J.P. Morgan Asset Management's Clare Hart is taking an underweight position in US consumer staples despite a strong run of performance.

The sector has been one of the best-performing in the S&P 500 in the last year, returning 33% and outperforming discretionary stocks by 10%. Highlighting the success of the sector, Warren Buffet announced a deal to buy consumer staples giant Heinz for $23bn in February, 20% above its share price. But the manager of the £1.4bn US Equity Income fund said there were "funny things going on" in the sector. "The criticism of my portfolio is that it looks expensive, but not even we own Heinz, because we think it is expensive," Hart said, who has been underweight for over a year. "It is...