"It's not much fun on the stock market at the moment," lamented Ms Ann Barker, fund manager with Pioneer Investment Management, after a tough month for the participants in the Rehab Great Investment Race.
The Italian-owned fund management group limped home in sixth place in June, as its fund lost 2 per cent of its value over the course of the month.
It wasn't the only one hobbling. Our sympathy goes to Ms Barker, who spent the month in plaster after fracturing her ankle alighting from the 46B bus in Dublin's city centre. But she gamely declines to blame Pioneer's poor showing on her mishap. "It was no excuse for our rotten performance this month," she says.
Instead, a difficult time on most stock markets took its toll on many of the fund managers including Pioneer, which had money invested in seven equity funds. These included the Pioneer Global Telecoms, Global Technology and French Equity Fund, which was down 4.4 per cent on the month.
Elsewhere, a stellar performance from Bank of Ireland Asset Management catapulted them to within a hair's breadth of Hibernian, who have held onto the lead for the third month in a row.
In the contest, six teams of fund managers are pitted against the market, and each other, for one year. The aim is to make as much money as possible, with all profits going to the Rehab Group.
The two top funds are now well ahead of the other four, leaving the latter group with some serious work to do to catch them up.
According to Mercer, the official monitors of the race, the top fund now stands at €142,298 - a gain of 42 per cent since the race started - but BIAM's is a mere €1,297 behind after growing by more than 17 per cent in June. This gain was logged in a month that saw the Dow fall by 3.7 per cent, the FTSE shed more than 4 per cent, while the ISEQ, one of the better performers, gained just 2.7 per cent.
Fund manager Mr Chris Reilly credits Glanbia and Fyffes for his strong performance and plans to stick with his strategy of speculating in low-priced, low-risk smaller Irish companies.
However, in addition to holding McInerney and Glanbia heading into July, he has diversified into Vodafone. Only time will tell how his foray beyond these shores fares.
Meanwhile, Hibernian is hanging onto the top slot after a month in which it again successfully played the technology sector. The fund manager turned in a gain of 5 per cent in June after first investing half of its cash in its Technology Fund, then exiting the fund before it fell, and reinvesting in it towards the end of the month. The fund management group is, however, reviewing its equity exposure and considering adopting a more cautious stance.
Despite May's setback, Irish Life remained active, notching up a gain of 6.4 per cent in June, the second-best performance in the month.
Fund manager Seamus Magner says an 8 per cent rise by one of his stocks, Alstom, helped offset the heavy losses he suffered the previous month when his portfolio lost nearly 19 per cent of its value. However, the fallout from May still weighs on him as Irish Life brings up the rear in the overall rankings.
Friends First and Setanta did not fare so well in June, with both funds losing 1.7 per cent of their value over the course of the month.
But the good news for Rehab is that all the funds are still ahead in overall monetary terms. And there's still nine months to go.
jmosullivan@irish-times.ie
