A rise in the oil price and a weakening dollar hurt managed futures and macro hedge funds in April, according to data from eVestment.
Managed futures funds lost 0.67% on average in April, the sector’s first monthly loss since October, the data group said, with funds of more than $1 billion losing 3.62%. This followed eight consecutive months of gains, which had brought strong asset flows into the sector. In the first quarter of 2015, managed futures funds saw inflows of almost $10 billion, one of only three sub-sectors of hedge funds to post significant inflows.
Global macro funds lost an average 0.65% last month, and the sector was the poorest performing segment in the first four months of the year, gaining just 0.27%.
Despite these results, hedge funds enjoyed a strong month overall in April and have on aggregate outperformed the S&P 500 index so far this year. Last month’s aggregate gain of 1.22% brought the hedge fund industry’s return to 2.92% for the first four months of 2015, while the S&P 500 rose 1.93% between January and April, eVestment said.
The data provider said hedge fund managers “may be showing their mettle” amid financial and geopolitical volatility.
“It’s easy to undervalue the importance of hedge fund strategies and active management in general during the kind of bull market we’ve enjoyed for the last few years,” said the report’s author Peter Laurelli, eVestment vice president and head of research. “It’s when things become less certain and more volatile that hedge funds really show their strength for investors looking to diversify with a variety of investment types as they seek to grow and protect their assets.”
In the first quarter of 2015 hedge funds have recorded aggregate inflows of nearly $30 billion, more than a third of the total inflows recorded during 2014. Total asset under management were $3.1 trillion at the end of March, eVestment said.
Source: eVestment
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