Our Two Favourite Universal Funds

Article Excerpt

UNIVERSAL CANADIAN GROWTH FUND $24 (CWA Rating: Conservative) (Mackenzie Financial Corp., 150 Bloor St. West, Toronto, Ont. M5S 3B5. Web site: www.mackenziefinancial.com. 1-800-387-0780; Load fund — available from brokers) holds companies with strong management and sound business prospects. The fund holds fewer than 40 stocks at all times. Top holdings include BCE Inc., Canadian National Railway, BorgWarner (U.S. auto parts & equipment) Industrial Alliance Insurance, Manulife Financial, Cognos Inc., Shoppers Drug Mart, EnCana Corporation, Martinrea International and Nova Chemicals. The fund’s breakdown by economic sector is as follows: 24.1% in Consumer discretionary, 15.3% in Financials, 11.9% in Industrials, 8.3% in Energy, 5.1% in Health Care, 4.9% in Telecommunications Services, 4.7% in Information technology and 4.6% in Consumer staples. The $1.2 billion Universal Canadian Growth Fund now holds almost 17% of its assets in cash. We don’t like the market timing aspect of holding a relatively high cash balance. But it does leave the manager lots of room for bargain hunting. The fund made 23.7%…