Ardevora's Lang: Why UK giants have suffered summer share price shocks

Firms seen double-digit falls

Ardevora's Jeremy Lang has pinned the high volume of double-digit share price falls in recent weeks on the fallout from management running firms with only a "narrow margin of error", while explaining why he has avoided the businesses that have been hit particularly hard.

In recent weeks, FTSE-listed firms such as Provident Financial, Carillion, WPP, Dixons Carphone and AstraZeneca have all suffered. In the case of Provident Financial, which is held by Neil Woodford and Invesco Perpetual's Mark Barnett, shares fell nearly 70% after the firm issued its second profit warning in three months and the CEO resigned.   Lang, who runs the £133m Ardevora UK Income fund, said: "In some periods like this things can change very quickly. There is a lot of unpredictable change at the moment and political and economic shocks. Firms have been run by management with a ...