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 or in companies that have a significant proportion of their assets or interests in Continental Europe.
September was brutal. The fund fell 12.1%. We take little comfort from the fact that our benchmark index lost even more, with the MSCI European index dropping 13.4%. Our put options spared the fund the full brunt of the market's decline, earning 0.9% for the month. Remarkably, despite the unmitigated disaster which is the European economy, our German bunds conspired to lose 0.7%.Indeed, such was the beating endured by the stock markets that only four of our holdings; (out of a total of 58) managed an absolute price gain. For the record, they were Kopex (Polish mining equipment), Hamon (Belgian scrubbers for coal power stations), Tesco (the eponymous British food retailer) and Barrick Gold.
