Marlborough’s latest portfolio rebalance has brought with it a number of changes which Asset Allocator has duly noted. 

Into the final quarter of 2024 the team has decided that UK equities is the place to be over the coming months, having established a tactical overweight to our domestic companies. 

Their reasons for doing so are as follows: valuations remain attractive, growth data has improved, inflation is close to target and interest rate cuts have begun. 

In doing so they have increased their weighting to Evenlode Income and added the fund to some portfolios where it was not held previously. 

Not all domestic funds are created equal, however, with Marlborough reducing their position in smaller companies, specifically Fidelity UK Smaller Companies as they see ‘increased risks from a slowing economy’. 

Another asset class they are particularly fond of at the moment is infrastructure, given the potential for interest rate cuts to stimulate the struggling sector. 

They’ve bought into their own fund here using Marlborough Global Essential Infrastructure as well as the L&G Global Infrastructure Index, to complement their exposure with a passive holding. 

Finally, across their active range, they’ve taken a view that value is due its time in the sun, away from US growth. As evidence of this, they cut their stake in Natixis Loomis Sayles US Equity Leaders while adding to T Rowe Price US Large Cap Value Equity. 

On top of this, they’ve also bought into Royal London US Growth which, in their words, uses a ‘quant-driven process to look for mispriced stocks’.