Woodford defends healthcare amid 'perverse' energy rally

Sceptical of energy pickup

Woodford Investment Management retains "considerable conviction" in the Equity Income fund's 33% allocation to healthcare, despite the overweight position hurting relative performance during last month's "perverse" commodities rally.

The company said the healthcare sector has much more potential than cyclical parts of the market such as energy, which returned 13.1% for the month to 15 October, compared to healthcare's lacklustre return of 1.8%.  As a result the £7.1bn Woodford Equity Income fund posted a loss of 0.8% for the period, against a 1.4% return from the FTSE All Share index.  "Although recent short-term performance has been challenging and uncomfortable, we remain convinced that our strategy remains highly appropriate and especially so for the prevailing economic conditions," the company said. "Some i...