New figures show that Irish managed pension funds experienced a negative return of 8.4% in September - the fifth negative monthly return in a row.
Consulting group Hewitt Associates said that year to date index returns are now down 22% while for the 12 months to September returns are down 25%.
Hewitt says that in September the Irish equity market has been by far the worse performing market mainly due to the concentration of financials within the ISEQ.
Over the month, the ISEQ was down by over 20% while all other developed markets fell by between 5 and 10%.
'While these returns may appear catastrophic and particularly in light of negative market sentiment it is worth pointing out that these levels of returns are not the worst on record,' commented Evelyn Ryder of Hewitt Associates.
She says that August 1998 was in fact the worst month in 15 years with managed funds returns registering a negative 10% for the month.
'The concern, however, may be the frequency and magnitude of the returns, as over the last 12 months there has only been three months of positive returns,' she added.
She says that the outlook for equity markets is still uncertain and Hewitt expects market volatility to remain.
