Hedge funds had a “rough start” to the year with performance down 0.91% in January – though they still outperformed underlying markets. The MSCI World Index declined 5.71% over the same period, says Eurekahedge, which provides hedge fund performance data.
According to Eurekahedge, all regional mandates underperformed with Asia-focused hedge funds leading the declines. Asia ex-Japan hedge funds were down 3.3% followed by Japan hedge funds, which were down 2.44%.
Hedge funds investing in Greater China posted their first month of losses since August 2015 and were down 5.98% in January with its long/short equity heavyweight declining 6.24% as Chinese equity markets came under pressure during the month. The CSI 300 declined 21.04% over the same period.
Long/short equities hedge funds posted losses of 2.8%. Across regional mandates, Asian long/short equities hedge funds performed the worst, down 3.24% over the same period.
Last year, hedge funds narrowly missed posting a positive performance.
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