- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -

Related

Equity HFs Enter Positive Territory

Industry Report

- Advertisement -

Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – After two quarters of head-spinning market moves, Nordic equity hedge funds ended the first half of 2020 up 0.4 percent on average. Equity hedge funds gained 1.8 percent in June (90 percent reported), which brought the group’s average return for the second quarter to 9.5 percent.

Global equity markets gained 1.9 percent in Euro terms in June, cutting the year-to-date losses to 6.3 percent. Markets started the month of June strongly, but the mood changed mid-month after a fairly downbeat economic assessment from the U.S. Federal Reserve and growing fears of a possible second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

The VINX All-Share Index, which includes all the firms listed on Nasdaq OMX Nordic Exchanges and Oslo Börs, delivered a net return of 1.1 percent in Euro terms in June, which reduced the year-to-date decline to 4.6 percent. Eurozone equites rose 5.0 percent last month, while North American stocks advanced 1.3 percent in Euro terms. Eurozone equities are down 11.8 percent year-to-date, while North American equities ended the first half of the year down only 2.8 percent.

Both European and global equity hedge funds trailed their Nordic counterparts in the first half of 2020. The Eurekahedge Long Short Equities Hedge Fund Index, which tracks the performance of about 900 global equity hedge funds, gained an estimated 2.1 percent last month based on reported data from 17 percent of index constituents. This group was down 1.8 percent in the first half of the year. Another Eurekahedge index comprised of 162 European equity hedge funds was up an estimated 1.1 percent last month based on reported data from 22 percent of index constituents. The Eurekahedge Europe Long Short Equities Hedge Fund Index was down 3.9 percent in the first half of the year.

The dispersion between last month’s best- and worst-performing equity hedge funds in the Nordic Hedge Index slightly decreased month-over-month. In June, the top 20 percent of funds gained 6.3 percent on average, whereas the bottom 20 percent lost 1.5 percent on average. In May, the top 20 percent gained 8.0 percent on average and the bottom 20 percent was down 1.2 percent on average. Three in every four members of the NHX Equities enjoyed gains during the month of June.

Managed by Andreas Aaen out of the Danish region of Aalborg, long/short equity fund Symmetry Invest was last month’s best-performing Nordic hedge fund with a gain of 10.1 percent. The Danish fund was up 54.6 percent in the second quarter to shave its year-to-date decline to 5.1 percent. Activist investor Accendo Capital advanced 9.4 percent last month, taking the performance for the first half of 2020 to 25.4 percent. Accendo was the second-best performing member of the Nordic Hedge Index in the first half of 2020.

Adrigo Small & Midcap L/S, a stock-picking hedge fund looking for long and short opportunities in the Nordic small- and mid-cap segment, was up 8.4 percent in June, bringing its year-to-date performance in positive territory at 3.3 percent. Long-biased small-cap-focused long/short equity fund Alcur Select rose 8.4 percent in June and is up 23.4 percent year-to-date through the end of June. Energy transition-focused Proxy Renewable Long/Short Energy, meanwhile, gained 5.7 percent last month, which brought its 2020 performance further into positive territory at 16.2 percent.

 

Photo by Andrei Lasc on Unsplash

Subscribe to HedgeBrev, HedgeNordic’s weekly newsletter, and never miss the latest news!

Our newsletter is sent once a week, every Friday.

Eugeniu Guzun
Eugeniu Guzun
Eugeniu Guzun serves as a data analyst responsible for maintaining and gatekeeping the Nordic Hedge Index, and as a journalist covering the Nordic hedge fund industry for HedgeNordic. Eugeniu completed his Master’s degree at the Stockholm School of Economics in 2018. Write to Eugeniu Guzun at eugene@hedgenordic.com

Latest Articles

Machine Learning Helps Lynx Constellation in Tough Trend Markets

Lynx Asset Management is best known for its flagship trend-following strategy, the Lynx Program, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. In late 2019,...

Rising Adoption of Quantitative Investment Strategies Among Nordic Investors

From a high-level perspective, there is a clear trend of increasing adoption of quantitative investment strategies (QIS) among Nordic institutional investors, either through the...

EU Plans Stress Test for Hedge Funds and Non-Bank Firms

European regulators are planning a stress test to identify vulnerabilities beyond the traditional banking sector, focusing on less regulated entities such as hedge funds,...

ALCUR Fonder Continues Hiring Spree

Following two earlier additions this year, ALCUR Fonder continues to expand its portfolio management team at a notable pace. The Stockholm-based hedge fund boutique...

Nordic Private Markets Modernize with Data-Centric Trade Lifecycle Automation

By Anders Stengaard Jensen at Indus Valley Partner: In recent years, asset managers in Nordic countries have accelerated efforts to modernize trade operations, particularly...

Norwegian Hedge Fund Industry Sees Major Boost with New Launch

The Swedish and Danish hedge fund industries remain closely matched in size, with Denmark recently edging ahead of Sweden. While still less than half...

Allocator Interviews

In-Depth: High Yield

Voices

Request for Proposal

- Advertisement -
HedgeNordic
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.