Iraq-focused hedge fund the Babylon Fund continued its slide last month, losing 5.9%, leaving it down 9.4% year-to-date. The fund's losses last month were primarily a result of bearish sentiments, according to portfolio manager Björn Englund.

“For example, Iraqi bonds lost heavily, with its U.S. dollar-yields spiraling back into double-digit territory, as did all oil prospecting companies,” wrote Englund in a letter to investors. Inside Iraq, Englund said markets stayed mainly flat in September, with the top 15 companies losing a few percentage points on average.

Englund reiterates that Iraqi investments are not for the faint-hearted and “financial crises more or less, now and then, are business-as-usual for many of our experienced pre-frontier institutional investors.”

He added that the Babylon Fund's assets under management, which currently stand at US$23.6 million, continues to rise with no redemptions having been made so far.