The global hedge fund business returned +0.18% in June, bringing year to date (YTD) performance for the industry to +9.22%, the best first half performance since 2009, according to the just-released eVestment June 2021 hedge fund performance data. “This year’s performance is impressive by an even longer measure, as in the last 20 years H1 returns have only been near or better than 2021’s three other times, in 2000, 2003 and 2009,” said eVestment Global Head of Research Peter Laurelli.

Hedge fund performance in June continued a streak of good news for the industry, which returned +11.04% in all of 2020. But while 58% of funds reporting to eVestment were in the green in June, that marked the lowest proportion of positive results in a month since October of 2020.

India focused hedge funds are leading the industry in YTD returns, with average returns at +28.44%. These funds saw average returns in June of +3.77%, which trail only Brazil-focused funds for monthly returns. Brazil-focused funds returned an average of +3.87% in June but trail the industry YTD with average returns of +5.84% this year.

Among the primary hedge fund types eVestment tracks, FX/Currency funds were big performance winners in June, returning an average of +1.45%. These funds have had a tougher year than most however, and are still negative for the first half of the year with average performance at -0.69%. Commodities focused hedge funds saw average returns of +0.68% in June and have YTD average returns of +15.22%, among the strongest H1 2021 average returns among all the hedge fund types and strategies eVestment tracks.

Some other performance highlights from June and the first half of the year include:

• In June, Origination & Financing hedge funds were the strongest performers among the primary strategies eVestment tracks, with average returns of +2.42%. For the year these funds are beating the industry aggregate return at +9.53%.

• Equity focused hedge funds are also among the strongest performers so far this year. These funds returned an average of +0.63% in June and are sitting at +12.16% for the year. Among Equity hedge fund sub types, Equity-Technology funds returned an average of +2.63% in June and are seeing YTD average returns of +8.09%. Equity-Energy funds also fared well in June, returning an average of +1.65%. With YTD average returns of +16.90%, Equity-Energy funds are among the strongest performers this year.

• The 10 largest reporting managers continue to produce mixed results, with -0.69% average returns in June and YTD average returns of just +2.89%, which are significantly lower than the industry’s average. “This is more due to a broad discrepancy between some good, some bad and some in-between returns among these very large funds rather than the result of large funds generally underperforming,” said eVestment’s Laurelli. “Though we are not seeing these same discrepancies across the entire industry keeping those returns down.”

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