Gains all round as Montgomery Oppenheim takes pole position

Rehab Great Investment Race: January brought another month of healthy growth in the Rehab Great Investment Race, with most of the seven players notching up good gains. This was particularly true for Hibernian Investment Managers, where Mr Roy Asher delivered a 7.5 per cent gain over the month and took first place.

Mr Asher benefited in particular from a holding in British housebuilder Westbury. The stock gained close to 9 per cent over the month as concerns over the UK housing market subsided.

Stakes in Hong Kong diversified trading company Jardine Matheson and Taiwan Semiconductors meanwhile rose by almost 7 per cent, helping Mr Asher rise from fourth to third place in the overall rankings.

Second place in January went to AIB Investment Managers with Mr Lance Graham presiding over a 7 per cent return. AIB gained on the back of United Business Media, which he sold at the very end of the month after notching up a 15 per cent gain.

Mr Graham also did well out of copper miner Antofagasta, which he bought in December and continues to hold. Mr Graham took a new holding last month in Swiss-based mineral resources firm Xstrata, which also specialises in copper. He ranks fifth overall, up one place.

Third place in January went to Montgomery Oppenheim, led by Mr Michael Lernihan. The firm's allocation grew by 4.1 per cent over the month, enough to push Setanta Asset Management out of the top spot in the overall race.

The performance was driven largely by Mr Lernihan's position in UTV, which climbed by about 10 per cent on positive advertising momentum. UK financial services firm Man was Montgomery's only sale in January, while the firm bought into Iona Technologies and US transportation company Yellow Roadway Corp.

Setanta's 0.6 per cent took fourth place in January, slipping out of top spot overall. The race remains tight, however, with just 0.2 per cent between the leaders.

Setanta's Mr James McSweeney took a cautious stance on what he viewed as "overbought" markets in January. He was a fairly active trader over the month, making opportunistic moves in stock such as Elan and Royal & Sun Alliance but ending the month with 60 per cent of his allocation in cash.

Irish Life Investment Managers (ILIM) came fifth in January, after a positive performance in the first half of the month tailed off slightly. ILIM's Mr Seamus Magner got a good return on trades in Grafton but was less fortunate when he disposed of Dutch telecoms company KPN. He had positions in Ryanair and Commerzbank as February began, having fallen from fifth to sixth position overall.

Standard Life's Mr Tony Hood came in sixth in January with a negative return of 0.3 per cent. The performance, which was based on a position in British Airways, left Mr Hood in seventh place overall. Seventh place in January was taken by Bank of Ireland Asset Management, where Mr Chris Reilly saw his allocation fall back by 1.7 per cent. The fall came as he exited Greencore and bought into Pfizer, moving from second to fourth position in the overall race in the process.