Hedge funds attract US$30 billion in Q1

Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Author: Advisor.ca

Hedge funds sealed the first quarter of the year with another month of negative returns, down 0.18% in March as managers navigated through a choppy start to the year.

Read: Global hedge fund AUM hits record high

However, strong returns posted by fund managers in the previous month saw them through with the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index up 1.05% in Q1 2014, outperforming the MSCI World Index, which gained 0.67% over the same period.

Key takeaways for March include:

• Net asset flows for Q1 2014 stood at US$32.6 billion, with capital allocations to North American managers at US$ 17.7 billion and those for European managers at US$ 13.6 billion;

Read: Hedge funds recover from January's losses

• Japan focused hedge funds posted their third consecutive month of negative returns — down 0.84% in March and 2.09% in the first quarter of the year;
• Latin America focused managers surpassed all regional mandates delivering the strongest gains — up 1.53% in March, and outperforming the MSCI EM Latin America Index by 2.45% in Q1 2014;
• Distressed debt investing hedge funds delivered their ninth consecutive month of positive returns — up 2.70% in the first quarter of the year;

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• CTA/managed futures hedge funds continued to languish, down 0.98% in March and 0.33% in Q1 2014. Investors have redeemed US$5.0 billion from the strategy in the first quarter of the year; and
• Eastern Europe & Russia focused hedge funds fared the worst, losing 2.54% in March and 8.02% in Q1 2014, weighed down by geopolitical tensions in the region.