Commodities fund loses $400 mln in oil slide -report

Date: Monday, May 9, 2011
Author: Nadia Damouni, Reuters

* Clive Capital, commodities HF, hit hardest -report

* Down 8.9 percent after oil price drops -report

NEW YORK May 8 (Reuters) - Clive Capital, the world's largest commodity hedge fund, lost more than $400 million due to the collapse of the price of oil last week, according to the Financial Times on Sunday.

The London-based fund, which manages an estimated $5 billion of client money, is the largest of several hedge funds believed to be impacted by the unexpected sell-off, the newspaper said.

Clive said it was down 8.9 percent on the week after what it called "extraordinary" price movements on Thursday, according to a letter sent to investors on Friday and seen by the Financial Times.

Thursday's sell-off was started by retail and non-traditional investors taking profits, a move which triggered automatic selling from quantitative funds, according to the newspaper.

Clive is now slightly down on the year, after strong performance over the first four months to April.

Benchmark Brent crude oil saw its lows reach $105.15 a barrel on Friday, dropping more than $16 in two days.