May performance figures for local hedge funds released

The 47 hedge funds participating in the Nedgroup Investments Hedge Fund Review gained, on average, 1.5% after fees during May, reports Lizelle Steyn, Product manager at Nedgroup Investments. This compares to the returns of the FTSE/JSE All Share index of 1.7%, the All Bond Index of 1.1% and the STeFI Interbank Call Rate of 0.7%.

"The long/short equity category was the best performing category for the month, delivering 3.3% on average. The funds in the fixed interest, market neutral and trading categories, on average, achieved returns of 1.6%, 1.0% and -0.3% respectively. The trading category also produced the widest dispersion of returns for the month ranging from -6.0% to +7.0%.

"For the 12 months ended May 2007, the hedge funds with long enough track records delivered 22.1% on average. Over this period the long/short equity funds also achieved the highest returns of 39.2% on average. The fixed interest, market neutral and trading categories delivered returns of 11.8%, 9.4% and 21.2% respectively. The fund with the highest return for the 12 months ended May 2007 was the Vega Centauri Fund Composite with a return of 67.8%. By comparison, the FTSE/JSE All Share and the All Bond Indices returned 42.9% and 6.0% respectively over the same period."

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