The Optimal Asia Absolute Trust, an Australian/NZ focused equity long short fund, was up +1.4% in April, underperforming the ASX 200 which gained +5.54%.
The Fund, which commenced investing in September 2008, has achieved a remarkably stable performance history given market conditions - the Fund returned +5.09% last year and is up +5.79% so far in 2009, with an annualised standard deviation of a low 3.63%.
None of the Fund's long positions made a loss during April, however index futures, and materials, retail and gaming sector short positions were all in the red. The manager commented that the ongoing short selling ban on financial stocks and REITs, as well as the large number of capital raisings in recent months, continues to detract from performance.
