BlackRock

BlackRock's Richard Plackett, manager of the £1.5bn UK Special Situations fund, has been rotating out of large-cap defensive stocks and adding to small and mid caps, reflecting his more optimistic outlook on the world economy.

S&P Capital IQ has revealed its pick of the best funds with a decade-long track record, as it introduces a new 10-year grading system.

INVESTMENT TRUSTS

THE BIG QUESTION

BlackRock is overhauling the investment objective of its Global Equity fund and plans to boost exposure to emerging market equities.

BlackRock's Bob Doll has warned equities look due a correction in the near term, but said any sell-off would likely be short-lived, with the global outlook little changed by recent events.

Exchange-traded products gathered net new assets of $67.3bn during the first quarter of 2012, making it the best start to the year ever for the industry.

Markets moved modestly higher last week, which helped stocks to return one of the strongest first quarters in history.

BlackRock has poached seven emerging market debt managers from BNP Paribas Investment Partners.

BlackRock has called on the European markets authority to improve the way exchange-traded products are labelled, including identifying synthetics, and increase transparency over conflicts of interest.