Thomas Moore of Standard Life Investments has topped the Herald’s fund manager league for the second month in a row, as the Edinburgh house claimed three of the top four places.

The Citywire table measures rolling performance of managers in houses with a significant Scottish presence, and the latest figures reflect the three-year period to July 31.

The number of managers with AAA rating slipped to 13, from the previous month’s high water mark of 17, and only seven managers made the top 200 places in the table covering 4281 managers Europe-wide. Only Mr Moore, ranked 56, made the top 100, compared with six managers the previous month, as what proved to be a highly volatile third quarter for markets got under way.

Mr Moore manages the £1billion UK Equity Income Unconstrained Fund, which is the third best performer in the sector over three and five years and eleventh over one year according to Lipper figures for ILP Moneyfacts.

Kent-born Mr Moore, 40, has a BA in economics and politics from Exeter University and began his career in 1998 at Schroders. He joined SLI in 2002 and the UK equities team in 2006, taking over the unconstrained fund in 2009.

His fund has around 50 per cent in financials and consumer services and 30 per cent in industrials and consumer goods.

Maintaining her consistently high ranking is Kames Capital’s Audrey Ryan, who manages the UK Opportunities, Ethical Equity and Ethical Cautious Managed funds. The £516m Ethical Equity fund ranked ninth out of 258 funds in the UK all-companies sector in the recent year to September 1. Ms Ryan’s overall ranking slips from 80 to 110 but she moves up the Scottish table from fifth to second.

Behind her are SLI’s Jacqueline Lowe and Iain McLeod, who run the £315m Dynamic Distribution fund, which continues to benefit from its exposure to Mr Moore’s high-flying fund.

A newcomer to the rankings in fifth place ranked 141 overall is Sashi Reddy, who joined First State in 2008 and now has enough fund management track record to be eligible for the Citywire database. He manages First State’s Asia Pacific Sustainability and Indian Subcontinent funds with colleague David Gait but is not involved with the global emerging markets fund, which may account for previously high-ranking Mr Gait’s lower recent positions – though he has shot back up from 1645 to 733 in the current table.

Artemis pair Jacob de Tusch-Lec (global income, monthly distribution funds) and Peter Saacke (European growth and global growth funds) are placed sixth and seventh (160 and 169), followed by Colette Conboy at SLI International Trust (212). The top ten is completed by Franklin Templeton’s Ben Russon (252) and Colin Morton (312) who both have responsibility for four UK equity funds.