After a slight pause in June, investors saw the stock market rise strongly again in July with the S&P 500 index posting a fifth consecutive month of gains and returning to its level
After a slight pause in June, investors saw the stock market rise strongly again in July with the S&P 500 index posting a fifth consecutive month of gains and returning to its level of October 2008, according to research by Edhec.
The S&P 500 gained 7.56 per cent in July and has managed a spectacular 35.6 per cent recovery from its level in February.
The volatility (25.92 per cent) of the stock market reached a new low since its spectacular jump last September.
Similarly, after a moderate gain in June, both bonds (+2.14 per cent) and convertible bonds (+5.93 per cent) managed comfortable gains again, and a fourth month of positive returns.
The dollar (-3.63 per cent) returned into negative territory whereas the commodities market managed a sixth consecutive month of profits (+1.60 per cent).
Highly influenced by the increasing credit spread and the remarkable performance of convertible bonds, the convertible arbitrage strategy (+6.56 per cent) managed its highest monthly return in the history of the indices. Over the past eight months, the strategy has recovered (+36.6 per cent) from last year’s crash and returned to its level of May 2008.
The distressed securities strategy (+3.39 per cent) also benefited from the increasing credit spread and registered a fifth month of profits.
Though with a limited loss, the CTA global strategy remained negative (-0.19 per cent) in July. Conversely, the emerging market strategy is back on the rise as it registered another significant gain (4.39 per cent), lifting its returns over the past five months to 25.8 per cent.
The equity market neutral strategy managed a third month of moderate profits (+0.27 per cent). The returns on the stock market positively impacted the event driven (+3.39 per cent) and long/short equity (+2.85 per cent) strategies, which both managed a fifth month of profits, although they still underperformed the S&P 500 index.
Overall, the funds of funds strategy (+1.51 per cent) produced a fifth month of moderate gains.
