Equity investing hedge funds witness their best quarter since Q3 2009

Long/short equity, multi-strategy and relative value funds enjoy their best quarter since Q3 2009

After experiencing the best start to a year since 2000, hedge funds paused for a breather in March 2012, delivering a marginally negative performance. With the exception of the US, most markets across the globe registered declines and the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index dipped 0.14% in March with the MSCI World Index up by 0.39% for the month.

Key highlights for March 2012:

• Long/short equity, multi-strategy and relative value funds witnessed their best quarter since 3Q 2009 with gains of 6.1%, 4.93% and 4.29% respectively.
• Assets in hedge funds crossed US$1.76 trillion, gaining over US$50 billion during the first three months of 2012.
• Long-only absolute return funds saw gains of 11.4% in the first quarter of this year.
• Hedge fund managers employing non-conventional strategies have grown their assets to an all time high of US$63.2 billion.
• Relative value managers reached US$50 billion of capital for the first time on record.
• Islamic funds outperformed other alternative vehicles, gaining 0.63% during March 2012.
•  More than 100 hedge funds have been launched globally as at the end of March this year.

To read more, please see the full Eurekahedge Index Flash, also accessible on Scribd and Issuu.