HedgeCo.net (West Palm Beach) – Long/Short Equity managers who maintained a cautious stance through the recent market run-up appeared to be positioned to profit as markets shifted from cyclicals to defensives in June. Overall, the Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index (“Broad Index”) finished up 0.43% for June, bringing year to date to 7.18%.

Convertible Arbitrage funds continued to post the best performance of all the strategies in the Broad Index, with 4.05% for June and 23.95% cumulative performance YTD, Credit Suisse/Tremont Index’s monthly commentary reported. As equity markets’ recovered in the second quarter, managers began to profit again from the volatility arbitrage aspect of the strategy.

Overall, Emerging Markets finished the month relatively flat despite a rebound in economic activity in Asia, as countries across the region saw rising industrial and manufacturing output, the Index reported.

Credit-oriented hedge funds performed well as credit markets showed healthy activity, with $102 billion of investment grade bonds brought to the market in June. Many believe continued governments’ activism in the markets could provide additional opportunities for these managers.

Global Macro hedge funds posted their first negative monthly performance since October 2008 as the sell-off of short rates in US Treasuries negatively impacted the positions of a number of Global Macro hedge funds early in the month, Credit Suisse/Tremont said.

Editing by Alex Akesson

For HedgeCo.net
alex@hedgeco.net

HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!

Tags: accredited-investors, best-performance, convertible arbitrage, credit markets, credit-suisse, cyclicals, economic activity, emerging-markets, equity managers, global macro, hedge-fund-index, investment grade bonds, long short equity, macro hedge funds, palm-beach, treasuries, tremont-hedge-fund-index, volatility arbitrage, west palm beach, year-to-date

Reuters UK – JPMorgan Europe Dynamic fund favours defensive drugmakers and non-life insurers and has no plans to move into cyclicals until company newsflow, employment and money supply improve.

John Baker, portfolio manager of the 260 million euro (233.52 million pounds) fund, told Reuters his portfolio was invested in stocks with good newsflow and was mainly defensively positioned.

Baker favours GlaxoSmithKline which has taken a lot of cost out of its business and whose operating margins are improving, surprising the analyst community positively, he said.

Read Complete Article

Tags: analyst community, cyclicals, dynamic-fund, europe, glaxosmithkline, john baker, jpmorgan, life-insurers, money supply, operating margins, portfolio-manager, reuters, stocks