Citco funds swing into positive as manager sentiment ticks upward
Hedge fund giant Citco saw performance in its funds swing back into positive territory in July after a sustained slide for much of this year, the firm revealed today.
Citco, which has around $1.8tn under administration, said that the overall weighted average return for its hedge funds jumped to three per cent in July, up from loss 2.4 per cent in June and a 1.1 per cent loss in May.
Bosses at the hedge fund administrator said that volatility had kept July busier than usual this year but the amount of investors pulling their cash from funds had remained subdued.
“Although July and August have traditionally been quieter trading months for capital activity, July was another busy trading cycle – albeit one where hedge funds administered by Citco companies saw only slight net subscriptions in a turnaround from the previous Month,” the firm said in a report.
“While busy, volumes were slightly muted compared to previous months, with inflows of $8.6B and redemptions of $7.4bn – resulting in net subscriptions of $1.2bn.”
The firm’s commodity strategies, which have delivered strong returns to the firm this year amid wild swings on markets, reversed and were the only strategy to post average losses of 0.7 per cent.
However, all other strategies posted positive returns with Multi Strategy leading the pack at 4.4 per cent, followed by Equities at 3 per cent and Fixed Income Arbitrage at 1.8 per cent, Citco said.
The uptick in returns reflect a closely watched survey from Bank of America yesterday which found that fund managers are no longer “apocalyptically bearish”.
The latest global fund manager survey from the bank found a net percent who expect a stronger economy has climbed to negative 67 per cent in August from negative 79 pre cent in July.