Bumpy ride

Rehab Great Investment Race:All participants in the Rehab race - bar one - lost ground last month, writes Caroline Madden.

Against the backdrop of extreme financial market turbulence, it is no surprise that only one of the five contenders in the Rehab Great Investment Race succeeded in making a gain in November.

Since the charity investment contest kicked off in July, the five Irish fund managers who stepped up to the challenge have faced a tough investment climate and the continuing turmoil last month took its toll. More than €23,000 was wiped off the total raised, reducing the combined gains to €55,806.

Irish Life Investment Managers stemmed the loss - to a certain extent - by generating a positive monthly return of 2.2 per cent. This was the best result of all five players for November, and brought Irish Life's total gain since the start of the race to 16.5 per cent, or €16,538.

Fund manager Séamus Magner stuck with his strategy of frenetic trading, which served him well in previous legs of the race. Buying and selling French chemicals company Rhodia, Dutch recruitment agency Vedior and Aer Lingus proved to be his most lucrative trades.

The only stock held over into his December portfolio was Irish building materials group Grafton.

Magner's astute stock-picking performance pushed Irish Life up one position to second place in the leaderboard. Despite losing ground in November, last year's winner Oppenheim Investment Managers maintained its position at the head of the field.

Oppenheim's race fund manager, Stephen Hynes, also opted for an active trading approach in November. However, despite successful trades in the European and Canadian components of his portfolio, sizeable losses incurred on US stocks such as Ultrashort QQQ Proshares and Trina Solar wiped out any gains.

By the end of the month, the fund's value had lost 4.7 per cent, although the total return on investment since the beginning of the competition remains an impressive 34.4 per cent, or €34,424.

Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM) compounded earlier losses with a further 2.1 per cent drop in the value of its race fund. BIAM's fund manager Pat Cunningham sat tight in November and decided against making any adjustments to his portfolio, which comprises just four stocks: Australian medical diagnostics company Sonic Healthcare; Hong Kong property developer Sun Hung Kai Properties; Vallourec, a French services company which makes metal pipes, and steel giant Arcelor Mittal.

Despite outperforming three of its competitors in November, BIAM still languishes at the bottom of the league table at the end of the month and remains the only player in the red.

Cunningham has quite a challenge on his hands to make up the ground lost in September as a result of his Northern Rock position.

KBC Asset Management recorded the third strongest performance last month, after incurring a loss of 4.6 per cent. Its total return on investment has now dwindled to €2,861, after peaking at €7,811 in October, which leaves it lagging in fourth position in the overall table.

Fund manager Noel O'Halloran tried to ride out the storm by leaving his portfolio of five shares unchanged, making no trades in the month.

His portfolio still includes Irish building materials group CRH; Smartrac, a Dutch technology group; Acciona, a Spanish renewable energy company; Brazilian technology group Tele Norte Leste Participacoes, and Cia de Saneamento Basico, a water treatment group based in Brazil.

AIB Investments Managers (AIIM) was the straggler in November, incurring a hefty loss of almost 10 per cent.

Nevertheless the fund's total return to date stands at 10.4 per cent, or €10,391, good enough to secure its place in third spot in the leaderboard.

In November, fund manager Keith Johnson sold out of mining group Rio Tinto and doubled its holdings in Crocs. Johnson noted that the fund's performance was hit by a sharp decline in the Crocs' share prices, which plummeted after the footwear group announced that its 2007 forecast would miss estimates.

"However the company increased its guidance for 2008 and consequently we added to our position following the fall in the share price," Johnston said.

Other shares held by AIB during November also declined, including Nintendo, Flir Systems and National Oilwell.

Any profits made from the Rehab Race will be used to help autistic children and their families in Ireland.