UK

The final definition for the IMA Equity Income and Growth sector has recieved a welcome from asset managers who are saying it will provide investors with greater clarity.

Rathbone Income and Growth has been renamed Blue Chip Income and Growth and will sit in the soon to be established IMA UK Equity Income and Growth sector.

Odey Asset Management intends to launch a UK-focused absolute return fund to be managed by James Hanbury.

M&G is closing its UK Growth Portfolio and merging three funds into other portfolios in its range on 13 March. All four funds of funds are run by George Tsionis.

Staunch contrarian Bill Mott is again bucking a trend in the IMA UK Equity Income sector, boosting the number of holdings in his PSigma Income fund in a bid to capture a thematic-based market revival.

UK small caps have the potential to rally strongly as investors seek to rebalance their portfolios into recovery stocks, says Gartmore's Gervais Williams.

Top-performing Jupiter Financial Opportunities fund manager Philip Gibbs has identified insurers as one of only a few current attractive investment opportunities in the battered financials sector.

UK vehicles from the likes of Newton, Majedie, JO Hambro and Invesco Perpetual have all been given the highest scores for overall performance and low volatility in wealth manager Rowan's latest Making the Grade report.

Legal & General it to launch UK Special Situations trust to be run by Matt Fletcher, manager of UK Equity trust.

A combination of weakening fundamentals, technical selling and sheer panic are producing stock prices that are at extreme odds with companies' long-term prospects, according to Schroders' Nicholas Kirrage.