Oil bias hits Premier

Ian Rees, who is head of research pooled funds at Premier, said the reason the fund returned 2.07pc against the IMA Balanced Managed sector average of 2.23pc over one month to 11/10/06, was primarily because of the decline in the price of oil. Our 4.7pc interest in Schroder UK Alpha was affected by the sharp fall in the price of oil, as was our 4.78pc holding in the Merrill Lynch UK Dynamic fund. The Schroder offering also had PartyGaming which took a hit. Rees, whose £53.03m fund is first quartile over three years and second quartile over one year, is now running slightly underweig...