Hedge funds were flat to marginally negative at 0.06 per cent during the month of August, with much of this weakness led by underlying CTA/managed futures and macro mandated hedge funds, according to data released by EurekaHedge.
On the other hand, underlying markets as represented by the MSCI World Index (Local) were up 0.48 per cent.
Close to 60 per cent of the underlying constituent hedge funds for the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index were in positive territory this month, with majority of them being long/short equity mandated.
Asia ex-Japan hedge funds led performance among regional mandates this month, up 1.24 per cent while distressed debt managers topped the table across strategies, gaining 1.77 per cent over the same period.
As of 2016 year-to-date, close to 60 per cent of managers were in positive territory with roughly 14 per cent of these managers posting year-to-date returns in excess of 10 per cent over the past eight months. Close to 40 per cent of these managers are long/short equity mandated while another 20 per cent are CTA/managed futures mandated hedge funds.
During August, hedge funds declined a marginal 0.06 per cent during the month, and are up 2.5 per cent year-to-date. Preliminary data shows investors redeemed a further USD2.0 billion from the industry in August, which brings total three-month outflows to USD23.6 billion.
Among developed mandates, European hedge fund managers were up 0.55 per cent, followed by North American managers who were up 0.54 per cent while Japanese managers were down 0.13 per cent during the month. On a year-to-date basis, North American hedge fund managers were up 4.52 per cent while their European and Japanese counterparts were in the red – down 1.08 per cent and 3.73 per cent respectively.
The Eurekahedge Distressed Debt Hedge Fund Index posted the best returns among strategic mandates in August and was up 1.77 per cent during the month. Managers also posted impressive year-to-date gains, up 7.86 per cent – the best year-to-date returns for the strategy since 2013.
Long/short equities hedge funds were up 0.54 per cent in August with equity long bias hedge funds posting a 1.32 per cent gain, boosted by the well-performing global equity markets during the month. Latin American long/short equities hedge funds posted the best year-to-date gains, up 18.96 per cent while Japanese long/short equities hedge funds fared the worst, down 3.66 per cent over the year.
Asia ex-Japan hedge funds posted the best returns among regional mandates this month, up 1.24 per cent with strength led by underlying Greater China mandated hedge funds which were up 2.20 per cent in August.
CTA/managed futures hedge funds posted the steepest decline in August, down 2.15 per cent with underlying trend following funds down 3.18 per cent, commodity dedicated funds down 1.78 per cent and FX funds down 0.66 per cent during the month.
