July proved to be a challenging month for absolute return funds with nearly all strategies experiencing negative returns. The average return for the month was -2.11% in comparison to a fall of -4.78% in the ASX200 and -1.00% on the S&P500. This performance mirrored the June result of -2.01% bringing the average cumulative YTD return for Absolute Return funds to -4.15%. This contrasts to the equity benchmarks which still remain considerably lower for the year with the ASX200 down around 27% and the S&P500 down nearly 16%.
On a strategy / asset class breakdown the only funds to achieve a positive result were Equity Buy Write +0.12%, Fixed Income +0.13% and Carbon Assets +1.75%.
With a continuing volatile year across most markets and regions, the July 2008 YTD returns reflect that strategies in Commodities are performing best with Equity-based strategies the worst. On a geographical basis, North American mandates have fared better than locally-focused funds and those of other regions.
