Indices

The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index was up 3.73% in April – recording its strongest monthly performance in recent years, supported by the strong performance of the underlying global equity market as represented by the MSCI ACWI IMI (Local), which gained 10.47% over the month. Global equities enjoyed a strong rally throughout the month on the back of market optimism over the development of potential vaccines and reopening of the economy. In the US, the implemented lockdown and social distancing measures to curb the COVID-19 outbreak resulted in the loss of more than 22 million jobs in April, pushing the unemployment rate to 14.7% - a level not seen since the Great Depression. However, US equity benchmarks recorded their strongest performance since 1987, with the S&P 500 and tech-heavy NASDAQ gaining 12.68% and 15.45% during the month respectively. In the same vein, European equities posted strong performance as most countries in the region were on track to ease their lockdown on top of the approved half-trillion economic stimulus by the European Union. The DAX and CAC 40 were up 9.32% and 5.02% respectively. Over in Asia, equity markets in the region also enjoyed a strong rebound driven by the risk-on sentiment in the markets, with the KOSPI and CSI 300 ending the month of April up 10.99% and 6.14% respectively. Returns were mostly positive across geographic mandates in April, with fund managers focusing on Asia ex-Japan up 6.49, outperforming their North American and European peers who were up 5.42% and 3.54%, respectively. Across strategies, long/short equities, event driven and multi-strategy fund managers were up 6.76%, 5.59% and 3.95% respectively throughout the month.

Roughly 78.9% of the underlying constituents of the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index posted positive returns in April, and 10.6% of the hedge fund managers in the database were able to maintain double-digit returns over the first four months of 2020.