Hedge funds saw an estimated $9.9bn in investor withdrawals during March, a big increase on the $780m seen in February as the industry's run of net outflows stretched to 22 consecutive months, according to a new report from Nasdaq eVestment.

March's net outflows, which take the total seen for the first three months of the year to $25.6bn, came even as hedge funds posted positive performance across all strategies tracked by eVestment.

Hedge funds on average saw gains of 4.6% in Q1, according to eVestment, helping overall AUM rise to the highest level seen to date at around $3.364tn.

Alternative risk premia funds led the way with an average return of almost 12% return for the quarter, while the next most successful strategy, managed futures, returned around 9% in Q1, with funds having seen an average 4% gain in March.