Hedge fund performance picks up in April

Hedge funds continued to benefit from gains on the stock market in April, with a number of strategies posting moderate positive returns for the month, according to EDHEC Alternative Indexes survey.

The equity-oriented strategies in particular benefited from the market’s profits, with the long short equity strategy posting a gain of 4.24 per cent and the event-driven strategy a gain of 3.59 per cent.

These performances were the best posted by the latter two strategies respectively since February last year and April 1999. On the other hand, the equity market neutral strategy could do no better than -0.15 per cent for the month.

Overall, the fund of hedge fund strategy posted a 1 per cent return for April, contributing to a 1.3 per cent return for the year to date.

Convertible arbitrage posted a 5 per cent return in April, its fifth consecutive month of gains for the strategy, after “benefiting greatly from the performance of convertible bonds and the increasing credit spread”.

Similarly, the survey found increasing credit spread benefited the distressed securities strategy, which posted a gain of 3.87 per cent.

The emerging markets strategy posted a return of 6.45 per cent in April, its second month of significant positive returns, although conversely the CTA global strategy remained negative (-1.50 per cent) for a fourth consecutive month.