BlackRock's Plackett buys banks for first time since crisis

Richard Plackett has bought back into UK banks for the first time since the financial crisis in his BlackRock UK Special Situations fund as the sector begins to show signs of improvement.

During the financial crisis the manager ditched most of its banking stocks, only holding on to HSBC. But recently Plackett (pictured) has started buying back into UK banks, taking his weighting in the sector to 10% of the £1.8bn portfolio. "We are still underweight banks relative to the FTSE All Share index, but we are cautiously increasing our exposure after holding no UK banks for the past few years," Plackett said. "UK banks are working through their balance sheet problems and for the first time in years they are starting to look like a more attractive investment proposition." ...