The ‘astonishing’ resilience of UK consumers has bolstered the belief of JPMorgan’s Georgina Brittain and Katen Patel that the country’s small and mid-cap companies are pulling through the challenges of the past two years. However, the chair of their investment trust thinks the government has much more to do to restore investor support for domestic stocks.
Commenting on maiden half-year results for JPMorgan UK Small Cap Growth & Income (JUGI), a £440m trust formed at the end of February from the merger of the group’s Mid Cap and UK Smaller Companies listed funds, Brittain and Patel said it was ‘too easy to be gloomy’ about prospects in the wake of high inflation and interest rates.
They said the facts were that while the economy was forecast to grow just 0.4% this year, inflation was predicted to fall to 2.2%, just above the Bank of England’s 2% target, and interest rate cuts were expected.