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May continues to test markets with ongoing volatility and steep falls across a range of asset classes, a report by Australian Fund Monitors shows.
It is too early for hard numbers for May, but anecdotal evidence is that many fund managers will be equally tested.
Meanwhile April’s results continue to show many managers’ ability to perform well in a negative market.
Australian Fund Monitors’ index rose by 0.48 per cent in April, with equity based funds rising 0.41 per cent and non equity based funds 0.59 per cent.
Fifty six per cent of wealth creators around the world say they have made money in the last 12 months and they are on track for success against their optimistic predictions last September.
Last September 78 per cent of the wealth creators who took part in the Futurewealth Project’s first online poll said they expected to make money in 2010, even though the economic recovery looked highly uncertain at the time.
Projecting the results of the latest poll forward, 71 per cent will meet their target for wealth creation by September and they are even more confident for the next
Managed futures performed relatively well for April as commodities continued to trend higher during the month, a report by Lipper Tass says.
Long exposures to equities and large speculative short trades in euro futures sustained manager performance.
The Lipper Managed Futures/CTAs index registered a positive return of 0.63 per cent for April (+1.30 per cent year on year).
The degree of dispersion among individual fund returns declined from the previous month’s reading. A 31.66-percentage-point monthly performance difference for April divided the top and bottom performers of the actively reporting managers tracked by Lipper.
Although of a lower magnitude, April confirmed
The Morningstar 1000 Hedge Fund Index rose 0.7 per cent in April, while the currency-hedged Morningstar MSCI Composite Index increased 1.1 per cent.
For the first four months of the year, these indexes were up 2.2 per cent and 3.6 per cent, respectively.
“April was a solid month for hedge funds,” says John Rekenthaler, Morningstar’s vice president of research. “Nearly every category of hedge fund experienced a gain in April, as most global assets rose for the month. The main exceptions were in Europe, which suffered from Greece’s economic crisis, but even European hedge funds fared well if they reduced
Man Group made a profit before tax of USD541m for the financial year ended 31 March 2009, down from the USD743m profit made the previous year.
Diluted earnings per share were 24.8 cents, compared with 28.4 cents in 2009.
Man has a regulatory capital surplus of USD1.5bn and net cash balances of USD1.7bn.
The board will recommend a final dividend of 24.8 cents per share for the year ended 31
March 2010, giving a total dividend of 44 cents per share for the year.
Funds under management at 31 March were USD39.4bn, compared with USD42.4bn at 31 December 2009 and
The global macro scenario, macro information flow arrival and volatility clustering are expected to continue dominating market sentiment in the short run, according to a report by Lipper.
In the current trading environment macro and systematic traders are expected to benefit the most from trading across diverse asset classes.
Looking at the recent past, historical patterns occurring in 2007 might materialise again. Several macro-driven "crowded trades" are about to appear again in hedge portfolios.
Concerns about absorption of new government bond issuance of PIIGS countries and low bid-to-cover ratios at government debt auctions will affect the intermediate-to-long sector of the
Patrick Atkinson, partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers in Spain comments on current M&A activity in the Spanish financial services market following the rescue of a savings bank.
The rescue of CajaSur is likely to spark a wave of mergers in the Spanish banking market as the Spanish Government pushes forward with its plans to merge those institutions to strengthen the market.
This could result in a number of attractive assets (including branch networks) coming on to the market, opening up appealing acquisition opportunities for both competitors and new entrants.
However, this ‘back to basics’ phase does not provide the only opportunity
The State Street Private Equity Index rose by 5.94 per cent during the quarter ended 31 December 2009, a slight increase from the third quarter return and 2,226 basis points higher than the return recorded in the fourth quarter of 2008.
“Over the course of 2009, we witnessed fewer deals and a drop in fund raising activity in the Private Equity industry,” says Bill Pryor, senior vice president of State Street Investment Analytics. “However, private equity has since made a major comeback in the second half of 2009, finishing the year with all major fund categories posting positive returns over
Managed accounts have experienced extraordinary growth in the aftermath of the financial crisis, according to a report published today by Moody’s Investors Service.
The report takes a look at this type of structure and the inherent risks involved, and assesses the future impact it may have on the hedge fund sector as a whole.
"Although managed accounts have been around for a while, they enjoyed a surge in popularity after the market upheaval of 2008 due to the benefits they offer, such as access to liquidity and ownership of assets," says Joanne Job, a Moody’s analyst and author of the
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has published information to better inform investors in frozen funds about their rights in relation to the freezing of funds and to confirm which entities have received relief to assist in the redemption of funds.
The term frozen fund is often used to describe a registered managed investment scheme, originally marketed on the basis that investors had an ongoing or periodic right to redeem their investments on request, a right which has since been suspended.
ASIC recognises there is some confusion among investors about the freezing of funds, which funds are affected and how
