“We think there is an opportunity to get money back into UK equities given the FTSE has fallen back after being above 7000,” Burns said. “We see there being a lot more value there than earlier this year.”
The FTSE 100 is down to around 6400 having been over 7000 for much of April and May.
Burns said he also expects to see a pick-up in UK companies’ earnings over the next 12 months.
The additional exposure has been added thorough a FTSE ETF from iShares and the GLG Undervalued Assets fund managed by Henry Dixon and Jack Barrat.
Burns said he is also relatively positive on European equities and remains comfortable with the overweight he has held since last year.
In fact, Burns said while no decisions have been made yet, he is considering adding to his European equities allocation further in the near future as well.
He said that if there is some degree of resolution of the Greece crisis that could provide a new lift to the asset class, which is already being supported by ECB QE.
The only real downside to the European equities overweight has been on the currency side. “We have been hit by currency weakness as our exposure is unhedged, but we think that when Greece does get resolved it will be a good place to be overweight still,” Burns said.
Burns’ European exposure comes primarily thorough Henderson’s European equities funds managed by John Bennett, and Barry Norris’ Argonaut European Alpha fund.
Burns oversees three multi-manager funds across the risk spectrum; the Cautious Growth Fund, the Endurance Balanced Fund and the Global Investment Fund.
