Alliance is putting its trust in shares again

Katherine Garrett-Cox, chief executive and head of investment at Britain's biggest investment trust Alliance, is turning cautiously bullish of the stock market.

She pumped £200 million of the trust's cash into shares in December, and has continued to do so this year.

That's after she turned cautious early avoiding banks, financials and cyclical companies and moving into cash. At one stage last autumn, as much as 21% of Alliance's net assets of just over £2 billion were in cash or near-cash. But by the year end, Garrett-Cox had splurged out on shares to such an extent that cash was down to just 11% of assets.

Garrett-Cox, 41, was poached from Morley Fund Management by Alliance two years ago, receiving a £700,000 golden hello. But her promotion to chief executive came last August just as the bear market was about to enter its stiffest stage.

She dashed for cash then, but is gently returning to shares. But she warns there may be further to go in the downturn.

"We are currently retaining a defensive bias to our portfolio," she said. "However, we continue to seek opportunities to commit cash to quality companies with strong balance sheets."

Garrett-Cox said only eight of the 18 key indicators she monitors have so far turned green.

Alliance's net asset value fell 19.5% in the year to end-January against a 27.8% fall in the FTSE All Share index. But the dividend edges up from 7.9p to 8p.