Spot the difference: Woodford reveals top ten holdings

Neil Woodford's top ten holdings in his Woodford Equity Income fund contain few surprises, with AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and British American Tobacco the three largest positions.

Revealed this morning, the top ten positions in the newly-launched fund account for 50% of his total portfolio, and are dominated by the defensive sectors which the manager has historically favoured. Pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, whom Woodford supported in its attempt to stave off a takeover bid from US rival Pfizer earlier this year, represents 8.3% of the £1.6bn portfolio, with peer GlaxoSmithKline accounting for 7.1%. This is in keeping with a top ten which differs little from those of his former Invesco Perpetual UK equity income funds: eight of the ten positions are also found...