The Attunga Enviro Opportunities Fund was down -4.61% in February, down on its +11.12% return in January. Attunga’s Agricultural Trading Fund was also down on its January result, up +0.18% after gaining +4.98% last month.

Cooler weather, apart from one hot day in Victoria, kept electricity prices and volatility low during February, which was the main factor in the Enviro Opportunities Fund’s negative result. February also saw renewed interest in the proposed emissions trading scheme, with opposition parties in the Senate announcing an enquiry into the scheme a week after the Government’s enquiry was cancelled. The manager believes this regulatory uncertainty will create volatility, and therefore opportunity, in power markets throughout 2009.

The lack of significant fundamental news on agricultural markets in February drove the Agricultural Trading Fund’s flat result. Gains were made on cross commodity spreads on soft and hard wheat, as well as carry trades in canola and wheat. Mark to market losses were made on volatility spreads between canola, bean oil and corn.

The MM&E Capital Takeover Target Fund was up +0.28% in February, after posting a loss of -1.40% in January. This result came about while the S&P/ASX 200 lost -5.5% over the same period.

Discounted capital raisings, such as Suncorp-Metway, as well as adhering to stop loss limits helped drive the Fund to its positive result. Negative results came from holdings in Insurance Australia Group, Healthscope and Caltex.

The Austral Equity Fund recorded a small loss of -0.04% in February, following on from a +0.74% gain in January. Due to poor interim company reports and a lack of forward guidance, as well as often misleading disclosures regarding capital raisings, the Fund remained lightly invested.

During February the Fund held significant amounts in cash (69%) and short term investment grade corporate credit. More specifically, the Fund continued to hold Macquarie Airport Tickets, which fell later in the month, while the proceeds from its CBA Perls II will be received shortly.

The Apostle Loomis Sayles Senior Loan Fund, which mainly invests in US senior loans, posted a return of +8.29% in January, a record for the Fund.

The manager attributed the excellent result to a rally in loan markets, which in previous months had been dragged down by forced selling from leveraged vehicles. This appeared to stop in January, allowing bargain hunters to buy up across all credit sectors. The manager also attributed the result to the generally high quality of loans that make up the Fund's portfolio, loans that will most likely survive challenging market conditions in 2009.

Looking ahead the manager expects prices to remain low, based on continuing poor economic news, although there will be an influx of new capital into the sector.

The Pengana Property Securities Fund was down -9.1% in January, after ending 2008 down -57.2%.

The Fund closely mirrored its benchmark, the S&P/ASX 300 Property Accumulation Index, which was down -9.6%. The Fund's portfolio remained positioned around larger, high quality business models with limited balance sheet risk, including CFS Retail, Westfield and Stockland. The Fund also began to take postions in regional property markets such as Hong Kong and Singapore, which present a lower risk profile. Cash holdings were increased to over 2% during the month, with the intention to further increase this position in future, due to the damaging affects of ongoing capital raisings on confidence.

Pioneer Global Investment (Australia) has declined to provide performance updates on their three funds since October 2008. The manager has advised that they are undergoing a restructure, but declined to provide any further information.

For the 10 months up until October last year, the Momentum Global Long/Short Strategy fund had lost 24.45%, the Momentum AllWeather fund was down 17.56% and the Restructuring Fund lost 20.7%.

The Aston BRIC Fund, Select Fund and Performance Fund all made gains in January, up +1.80%, +0.22% and +1.77% respectively (USD class).

The BRIC Fund, a regional multi-strategy fund which invests in countries which exhibit high levels of growth, bounced back after a disappointing 2008 (12 month return -12.72%). All three underlying managers contributed a positive return to the Fund.

Positive performance for the Select Fund came from global macro and volatility strategies, which have performed strongly over the past few months. This was partially offset by losses in credit and asset backed strategies, due to asset writedowns and a challenging corporate environment.

The Performance Fund also enjoyed gains from global macro and volatility, as well as event driven strategies. The manager identified the marked absence of leverage and reduced trading activity of proprietary trading desks as a great opportunity set for managers with a trading orientation. The underlying funds actually performed better than the Ashton fund result implies, as their returns were offset slightly by Ashton’s cash holdings. These holdings are expected to be deployed as new opportunities arise.

The AMP Total Return Fund was up +0.01% in January, bringing its 12 month return to -32.6%.

The Fund's underlying managers maintained an extremely low level of exposure during the month, and due to the Fund's active risk reduction in the last quarter of 2008 leverage was around 1.2x. Positive returns were gained in macro/commodity strategies, in particular natural gas, European emissions trading and gasoline markets. Negative returns came from leveraged loan markets due to a lack of liquidity, as well as distressed and event driven strategies. The manager continued to reduce exposure to certain strategies, including fixed income and distressed securities, believing that this, along with reduced amounts of leverage, will position the Fund well to take advantage of future opportunities.

The BlackRock Asset Allocation Alpha Fund (Class D) returned +1.30% in January, increasing the Fund's three month return to +9.74% and 12 month return to +36.87%.

The Fund, which utilises a tactical asset allocation strategy to exploit trends, mis-pricing opportunities and likely developments in global asset markets, achieived positive returns from almost all positions. These included commodity/currency (long gold vs Euro), bond/bond (primarily long term in Australian vs US 10 year) and equity/cash (short US equities) positions. The only negative influence on performance were bond/cash positions (mostly long in US 30 year bonds vs short on Australian cash rate futures).

MM&E Capital's Investment Trust No's 1 & 2 both gained +0.22% in January, bringing their respective 12 month returns to -5.5% and -6.4%.

Both funds gained from the successful completion of the private equity bid for MYOB, the narrowing of the spread on Arrow Energy's bid for Pure Energy and the exit from convertible positions in Commonwealth Bank and Macquarie Airports. These were partially offset by convertible losses on Rio Tinto and Wesfarmers. Looking ahead the funds will continue to increase their position in St George convertibles, soon to be redeemed due to the merger with Westpac, and build a position in the wide spread between Rio's UK and Australian listed shares.