JOHCM's Beagles reveals the holdings hit by coronavirus in the £2.8bn UK Equity Income fund

Topping up easyJet

JO Hambro Capital Management's Clive Beagles has admitted the scale of the recent market sell-off has "surprised" the team running the £2.8bn UK Equity Income fund, with the falling share prices of cyclicals proving detrimental to returns.

Beagles said the flight to safety as investors became increasingly concerned about the global spread of the coronavirus and its potentially damaging impact on economic activity "provided a significant headwind to the fund's performance", as defensives performed strongly and cyclicals, banks and the commodity sectors fell materially during the month. BP, Shell and Glencore are top five holdings in the fund at 6.8%, 5.3% and 3.8% respectively, while Lloyds and Barclays round out the top five at 4.6% and 4.2%. Over one month, JOHCM UK Equity Income is down 11% compared to the 9.4% fall i...