The Alpha Plus Fund declined 9.3% in March, underperforming the S&P/ASX 200,which fell 7.1%. It was a tough and disappointing month for the fund as thesurprise onset of the Mid-East conflict upended our portfolio which had beentilted towards further cyclical improvement. Inaddition, the conflict did not play out like other geopolitical shocks whererisk aversion spikes and markets immediately gap lower. Instead, the marketground its way lower as the conflict progressed and this made it difficult todetermine how defensive to become and whether doing so would then leaveperformance exposed to a rebound.
