September saw sharp falls in world equity markets, fuelled by the problems facing western banks and insurance companies. Most leading government bond markets saw positive returns as investors sought safe havens from the equity market volatility.During the month we increased the fund's exposure to US equities at the lower market levels. The US market is characterised by a sizeable exposure to large, defensive growth companies. Towards the month-end we increased the weighting in the UK market, which is also considered more defensive in a global context.Elsewhere, we increased the exposure to high yield corporate bonds as yields look very appealing and compare favourably to those on government securities.