The market fell sharply in September on worries over poor growth and the problems in the banking system. Consumer goods, where we are neutrally positioned, outperformed as did healthcare, where we are overweight. Our weighting in materials was concentrated in the outperforming chemicals sub-sector, whilst underweighting industrials was also helpful.The underweighting in financials has been sharply reduced in light of share price weakness, and this has been partly funded by reducing the utilities exposure. Overall, the fund's sector allocation added value.Avoiding some of the month's pitfalls proved beneficial. For example, we had no exposure to ArcelorMittal (steel manufacturer hit by the potential for declining demand and falling prices) and Nokia (affected by poor prospects for mobile handset sales). However, some of our bank holdings detracted, notably Bank of Ireland and Commerzbank.We bought Credit Suisse as part of our strategy to bring our bank weighting closer to neutral, concentrating on quality names. Other purchases included Heineken and Danone, both good quality consumer franchises. We sold Novartis, which had performed well, and Veolia.
440.97p
