Magellan Fund Moves to Cyclical Stocks

Robert Stansky, manager of Fidelity’s $87-billion Magellan fund, said Tuesday he was weighting the giant portfolio toward cyclical stocks to position it to take advantage of a strengthening economy.

“I want the fund to be fairly aggressively positioned to take advantage of potential improvement in the economy as the year moves on,” Stansky was quoted as saying in the fund’s annual report for the year ended March 31.

He said the fund was overweighted in the energy industry compared with its benchmark, the broad Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

Magellan is the world’s largest actively managed mutual fund and its investment decisions are of interest to the fund industry because of its size and the effect it can have on a stock price.

Magellan is down 0.1% this year, compared with a loss of 0.8% in the S&P; 500.