It seems that even the experts couldn't escape the plight of Northern Rock last month, with the bank's plunge into crisis costing one of the participants in the Rehab Great Investment Race more than €16,000.

The unfortunate victim was Bank of Ireland Asset Management, which started the race with the British bank as part of its portfolio, held it over into the second leg and was most likely left regretting its decision when the group applied for emergency funding from the Bank of England and was hit by a rush of savers seeking to withdraw their deposits.

Pat Cunningham, the fund's manager, sold out of the holding in two tranches just days after the news broke, netting a total loss of €16,831.34.

As a result, BIAM held on to its spot at the bottom of the Rehab table, losing 6.4 per cent in September and bringing its total loss since the competition started in the middle of July to 9.9 per cent.

BIAM's fund now stands at €90,130, down from the initial €100,000 and making it the only one of the five participants to be in the red.

During the period, Cunningham bought Sonic Healthcare, an Australian medical diagnostics company, and held on to the three other stocks he had at the start of the competition, Vallourec, a French services company which makes metal pipes, steel giant Arcelor Mittal and Hong Kong property developer Sun Hung Kai Properties.

Cunningham wasn't the only one to suffer at the hands of Northern Rock though, with Séamus Magner, head of Irish Life Investment Managers, netting a loss of €851.47 on the stock.

This, however, wasn't his only problem last month, with US oil refiner Tesoro and investment bank Bear Stearns also failing to live up to expectations and generating losses.

Combined, these performances played a part in ILIM's fall from second place in the overall rankings at the end of the first leg, to fourth place at the end of September.

The fund lost 2.5 per cent on the month, but overall it managed to remain in positive territory, up just 0.9 per cent, as a result of a strong performance in the first leg.

A 3 per cent return from another British bank, Alliance & Leicester, helped to offset some of the losses from its peer, although a hasty exit from Irish counterpart AIB left Magner nursing a loss of almost €2,000.

He returned to the stock late in the month however and was left holding just that and the remainder of his fund in cash at the end of the period.

At the other end of the table, it was another good session for leaders Oppenheim, who held on to the top spot and ended the second leg €9,556 ahead of their closest rival.

The exceptional effort came as a result of another busy trading period, when manager Stephen Hynes bought six stocks and sold five, leaving him with just three, two of which - Renesola and Trina Solar - are involved in the manufacture of parts for the solar panels.

Hynes attributed the strong performance - the gain on the month was 11.6 per cent, bringing the overall increase to a very healthy 19.7 per cent - in part to a good showing by Canadian gold miner Goldcorp. The fund made more than 20 per cent on its holding in the company in just two weeks, a move which Hynes described as a leveraged play on the price of gold.

It also made about 13 per cent on its holding in Trina Solar during the period and a small gain on the sale of Aer Lingus shares.

Climbing up the table, AIB Investment Managers moved into second position with a 7.9 per cent increase on the month, bringing its overall return to 10.1 per cent.

The gain, however, came easy for the fund's manager Keith Johnstone, who bought and sold no shares in the period.

The best returns were generated by National Oilwell, a Texas-based manufacturer of oil-drilling equipment, which rose 19 per cent, and Japanese gaming group Nintendo, which jumped 18 per cent. Johnstone's other holdings are Australian mining group Rio Tinto; technology providers SAP; and Electronic Arts, a US video games group.

Elsewhere, KBC Asset Management also managed to climb one place in the overall rankings despite carrying out no trades.

Under the watchful eye of Noel O'Halloran, the fund, which contains five stocks including Irish building materials group CRH and Brazilian water treatment group Cia de Saneamento Basico, added 2.1 per cent on the month, helping to reverse the loss generated during the first leg and bring the overall gain to 1.7 per cent.