Tiger Management LLC is set to close its Jaguar fund on Friday to stem losses partly caused by its style of so-called "value investment" in traditional blue-chip stocks over high-flying technology issues, industry sources told Reuters.

Other reports have said Tiger chief Julian Robertson may move to shutter his whole operation, which has seen assets under management tumble to about $6.5 billion from $22 billion in just 18 months. Analysts said Tiger's woes, which come largely as a result of poor stock-picking, are not big enough to roil financial markets.

"This is the type of shock that capital markets rise above because it is small and it is localised," said Roger Alford, a senior research associate in the economics and financial markets group at the London School of Economics.

"This is a case where the risks do come home." When bond arbitrage fund Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) required a bailout of $3.75 billion in 1998, its near-collapse sent markets around the world sprawling.

But unlike LTCM, which employed leverage of more than 100 times assets, Jaguar is principally an equity fund and is likely to have far smaller leverage, analysts said.

"I don't specifically know what leverage Tiger has, but in general, anyone who is doing equity trading doesn't do high leverage," said Bob Dawkins, head of investment products at British private banker Coutts.

"There is not talk of systemic risk, it is just poor performance by a specific hedge fund manager."