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Financial Mail on Sunday, London, Fund Focus column [Financial Mail on Sunday, London :: ]
[June 23, 2014]

Financial Mail on Sunday, London, Fund Focus column [Financial Mail on Sunday, London :: ]


(Daily Mail (London, England) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) June 22--LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson had the honour of launching the capital's first euro ˜Technology Week' last Monday. The flamboyant politician dubbed London the euro ˜digital capital of Europe' in a show of support.



The week involved 200 events and attracted 30,000 visitors, including investors, entrepreneurs and representatives from technology heavyweights such as Microsoft, Google and Samsung.

Among the delegates was Allianz Global Investors' Walter Price, fund manager for the respected and strong-performing RCM Technology Trust.


But despite offering some praise for what the UK has to offer, particularly in mobile internet, Price's attention is fixed on what is coming out of California's Silicon Valley, rather than Silicon Roundabout euro " the nickname for a hub of technology ventures dotted around East London's Old Street.

US companies make up 85 per cent of the trust. The second-biggest share is China at 4 per cent. And Price believes US firms are forcing a euro ˜seismic' shift that will shake the foundations of the technology sector.

This shift revolves around the use of internet on smartphones and cloud computing euro " where software and data is stored on the internet rather than an individual computer, much like with email.

As an example he points to Workday, a human resources management company offering cloud-based software and a stock in the trust's portfolio.

euro ˜It's a cheaper and easier way to do things,' says Price. euro ˜Start-up companies are adopting new technology and that is cloud computing. They don't have an IT department running computers.' Price believes trends like this could inflate the technology sector's share of the stock market, and at a faster rate than it has achieved in the S&P 500 index in recent years.

Big names among the trust's holdings are Apple, Facebook and memory card firm SanDisk. Less than a third of the portfolio is made up of euro ˜high growth' stocks. The mix has proven successful, with investors making a 30 per cent return in the past year.

It also gets a favourable review from Tim Cockerill, investment director at Bristol-based wealth manager Rowan Dartington, who refers to it as a euro ˜high quality fund'.

He says: euro ˜With 60 or more stocks it is nicely diversified, without diluting potential returns.' ___ (c)2014 Daily Mail (London, ) Visit the Daily Mail (London, ) at www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html Distributed by MCT Information Services

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