Alliance Trust upbeat about future prospects

Investment company Alliance Trust today said it was "cautiously optimistic" about its prospects as it pumped more money into the recovering stock market.

The firm, led by chief executive Katherine Garrett-Cox, increased its exposure to equities to 90.6% in the three months to 31 October.

Garrett-Cox, known in the City as Katherine the Great, said Alliance was switching "towards those sectors that will benefit from the anticipated upturn in economic activity".

She said: "We still believe that the consumer will remain subdued for some time, hence our underweight positions in consumer goods and services as well as utilities and healthcare. Our largest overweight positions remain in oil and gas, industrials and basic materials."

Among its preferred investments are BP, HSBC, Rio Tinto and Royal Dutch Shell.

The firm has £2.43 billion of assets with £2.2 billion in shares.

Garrett-Cox said that the clearer view of how firms will perform next year was helping to support share prices which have rallied strongly since March.

The FTSE 100 index has risen more than 50% in the period.