Hedge funds experienced their first negative month of the year in April, with a weighted average return of -0.7%, according to new data from Citco, but remain in positive territory for 2024 with a year-to-date weighted average return of 6.5%.

Commodities strategies were the only positive performers during the month with a weighted average return of 2.1%, their best monthly performance so far in 2024.

Event-driven funds, meanwhile, were the worst performers with a weighted average return of -2.1%, followed by equities at -1.3% and global macro at -1%.

Muted performance was seen across several other strategies including fixed income arbitrage and multi-strategy funds, with both recording returns of -0.3%.

In terms of AUA, negative performance was seen across most fund sizes, with only those funds with between $500m-$1bn of AUA seeing a positive return of 0.1%.

The largest funds — those with AUA of $3bn or more — which had previously been the strongest performers so far this year, had a weighted average return of -0.1% in April, while funds with $1bn-$3bn came in at -0.3% and funds with £200m-$500m saw -0.8%.

The smallest funds — those with less than $200m AUA — were the worst performers at -0.9%.

Capital flows were positive over the month, with net inflows of $5.7bn overall taking net inflows YTD to $2.6bn. Nearly all strategy types had net inflows, with multi-strategy funds seeing $2bn.

Funds in the Americas had the highest inflows at $4.2bn, followed by Europe at $0.9bn and Asia at $0.6bn.