Just as markets failed to take off in July, the overall fund in the Rehab Great Investment Race failed to experience much in the way of uplift last month.
As August began, the fund stood at €692,653, marking an increase of 0.6 per cent on its position as July opened.
The result reflected a very mixed performance among the six players, although the month brought only a limited shake-up in the rankings.
Holding on to the top spot with some ease as July closed was AIB Investment Managers, where a 0.3 per cent monthly decline did little to dent Lance Graham's gain to date of 48.2 per cent.
Last month, Graham reduced his holdings in bluetooth firm CSR and microchip developer Wolfson Microelec and sold out of GlaxoSmithkline so that he could buy into mining group, Xstrata. The Swiss-based firm was (and still is) in the process of buying Canadian miner Falconbridge and Graham is hoping for some upside.
He also took a position in Linde, the German builder of hydrogen production facilities, again because the company was in acquisition mode.
"We're quite happy with the portfolio," says Graham.
Irish Life Investment Managers was one of just two teams to end July in positive territory, although Seamus Magner admits that things looked a little hairy mid-month.
He finished with a 0.6 per cent monthly gain, leaving him holding firmly on to second overall position with a 32.3 per cent return.
Magner was an active trader as usual, buying and selling across a range of sectors. His low point was a bad timing bet on steel giant Arcelor, but this was cancelled out by good returns on gaming stocks, Party Gaming and SportingBet, and Ryanair.
Magner also had a play on Spanish insurance firm Mapfre as it was entering an index.
He had sold out of all stock positions by the start of August, putting all of his money into cash as he was "waiting for opportunities".
There was a shake-up at the third spot in July, with Chris Reilly's Bank of Ireland Asset Management overtaking Richard Dunn at Oppenheim. Reilly's jump from fourth to third came after his one-stock position in Pfizer delivered a 10.8 per cent monthly return.
The result, by far the best July gain, left Reilly with a 12.8 per cent overall return. He entered August with an unchanged portfolio.
Oppenheim, which slipped from third to fourth as a consequence of the Pfizer result, was left with an 11.7 per cent overall return as August began.
In July, Dunn saw his portfolio decline by 2.6 per cent in value as he bought into US power company AES and mining equipment firm, Joy Global, which was also mid-acquisition. He sold out of Datalex and gaming machines group International Game Technology towards the end of the month. As August began, he had positions in Chilean copper miner, Antofagasta, Joy Global and AES.
Joy Global Inc has since completed its purchase of the Stamler coal mining equipment business from Oldenburg Group.
Fifth place at the end of July was still in the hands of Hibernian Investment Managers, where Roy Asher's portfolio fell back by 3.2 per cent. This left him with a 5.9 per cent race deficit with four months left to run.
The July result came on positions in US housebuilder KB Homes and Petrofac, the oil services group.
Mr Asher also bought into UK property group Speymill over the month and retained this position into August.
Setanta Asset Management held steady in sixth spot last month, with James McSweeney's portfolio declining by 1.4 per cent to leave him with a 6.6 per cent shortfall to make up by the end of November.
He fared badly on Marks & Spencer and Ford in July, made some money on CSR and broke even on AES and a German exchange-traded fund. He had a portion of cash and holdings in Newcourt and CSR as the month turned.
