Lanning ups bond holdings

Henderson Global Investors’ Tony Lanning has increased his weightings in several fixed income holdings in his £143.9m Multi-Manager Absolute Return fund.

Fixed income – including absolute return fixed income – at the end of June made up 37.8 per cent per cent of the fund but it now makes up almost 40 per cent. The manager added to the Axa US Short Duration High Yield, Kames High Yield and Jupiter Global Convertibles funds during the period.

Mr Lanning’s fixed income holdings boosted his performance in July, contributing 0.5 percentage points to returns.

The best performer was the Legg Mason Global Credit Absolute Return fund, which contributed 0.11 percentage points during the month, while the Jupiter Global Convertibles fund contributed 0.09.

Elsewhere, Mr Lanning has also increased his weightings in dividend-seeking equity funds by adding to holdings in

the JPMorgan Income Opportunities and M&G Global Dividend portfolios.

Mr Lanning said equities ended July in positive territory but this masked a high level of volatility, with Italian and Spanish indices falling more than 10 per cent in days and the MSCI World index rising just 1.4 per cent.

The manager added other concerns during the month were the US ISM manufacturing index dropping below 50 for the first time since 2009, while payrolls increased by just 80,000.

The euro area flash composite purchasing managers index (PMI) “disappointed” at just 46.4 – any number less than 50 indicates a contraction – although the Chinese manufacturing PMI was stronger than expected.