Artemis's Stuart buys defensives

The £830m Artemis Special Situations fund manager is taking money from retailers and oil companies to buy defensive staples like GlaxoSmithKline. Stuart says he was taken by surprise at the speed of this year's equity market rally, from the March FTSE 100 low of around 3,500 points, but feels the aggressive holdings which drove it have left safer stocks looking under valued. "Retailers and banks have all rallied very strongly and the difference in performance between them and the traditional defensives has been significant," he says. "We have been selling cyclicals like retail and fin...