The investment objective of the Fund is to achieve long-term capital growth through investment in a diversified portfolio of quoted equity investments principally in companies incorporated in any European country (including the UK and Eastern Europe) or in companies that have a significant proportion of their assets or interests in Europe.
September was brutal. The fund fell 13.7%. We take little comfort from the fact that our benchmark index lost almost as much, with the MSCI European index dropping 13.3%. Our put options spared the fund the full brunt of the market's decline, earning 1.0% for the month. Remarkably however, despite the unmitigated disaster which is the European economy, our German bunds conspired to lose 0.5%.Indeed, such was the beating endured by the stock markets that only three of our holdings; (out of a total of 95) managed an absolute price gain. For the record, they were Kopex (Polish mining equipment), National Grid (The UK electricity & gas network operator) & Tesco (the eponymous British food retailer).
109.82p
