Hedge funds saw mixed performance in the first half of the year, with macro fund Caxton Associates struggling to maintain its gains, while some multi-strategy and systematic funds excelled, according to a report by Reuters.

The report sits two unnamed sources as revealing that Andrew Law's Caxton Associates, which focuses on macroeconomic bets, ended last month flat after notching a 4% gain to the end of May. Bridgewater Associates' flagship fund meanwhile, as up 4.4% rise through 26 June, according to another unnamed source.

The HFR Global Hedge Fund Index recorded a modest 2.89% gain for the first half, while initial hedge fund data obtained by Reuters indicated significant performance divergence within the industry, during a period where a tech boom led global markets to strong performance.

"The dispersion between returns means that benchmarks don't always accurately reflect how specific strategies are performing," said Lilly Knight, head of investment management at K2 Advisors.

Some multi-strategy hedge funds achieved double-digit returns in the first half of the year with Cinctive Capital seeing an 11% rise, onto back of bets on the impact of artificial intelligence on energy, utilities, and technology sectors. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors' flagship fund meanwhile, was up 10.3%, and the AQR Apex Strategy gained 13.5%, outperforming giants like Citadel and Millennium Management.

Global fundamental long/short equities hedge funds posted gains of 7.55% in the first half, according to a Goldman Sachs prime brokerage note, with the top performers seeing gains of almost 15% gains, while the underperformers dropped by 2.22%.

On average, hedge funds struggled to match the MSCI's 47-country world stock index, which rose roughly 11% in the first half. The S&P 500 soared by 15% during the same period, driven mainly by a few megacap stocks such as Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA).

Philippe Laffont's Coatue Management reported a 9.2% rise in the first half, according to a source, while Aspect Capital's $9.1bn systematic Diversified fund returned 14.27% for the year up to ten end of June, making gains in agricultural markets, currencies, and stocks.