As equity markets around the globe continued to be buffeted in February, Australia’s Absolute Return and Hedge Fund industry slipped into the red, collectively losing 1.6% for the month, and erasing January’s gains to be down 1.21% for the year to date, based on 78% of local funds returns.
Against this the S&P 500 index in America lost 10.99% in February to bring year-to-date losses to minus 18.62%, while on the local front the ASX 200 lost 5.54% to show a cumulative decline in the first two months of 2009 of 10.15%.
When put in perspective, 48% of the over 200 funds listed in Australian Fund Monitors index of hedge funds have produced a positive return in the first two months of 2009, with 84% of all funds outperforming the ASX 200.
The results, whilst not universally positive, again showed that in times of adversity hedge funds, far from being the speculative vehicles that they are frequently portrayed as, provided diversity and significantly better risk profiles than equities alone.
For detailed analysis of performance for each strategy, industry comment and ranking tables, please open the attached .pdf file.
Attached Files:
AFM February performance review (pdf format)
