The Athelney Trust unaudited NAV rose by 1 per cent in May which, on the face of it, seems a fairly reasonable performance but, alas, the past month has again seen a number of trading statements and actual results in the value and income sector of the market which were simply not up to scratch. This group of eight shares fell heavily in May. Is this the time to get gloomy? Not at all, we all would like to think that we are contrarian investors, greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy so now is the time to prove it by buying British.

Measured against earnings, the London market is cheaper than Europe and America and is on par with Japan. London has underperformed other global markets consistently for five years. That reflects widespread disenchantment with British shares which has persisted for even longer. Apart from a short period in 2013, fund managers have for the past 15 years allocated less to London than a neutral weighting would imply.. Recently, figures from the Investment Association show outflows throughout 2016 and 2017 with no change in the trend so far this year. London is in the right sectors, relatively cheap and unpopular so what’s not to like?