Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Nordic hedge funds lost 0.8 percent on average in the six months that ended June after enjoying their best quarter on record. The Nordic Hedge Index was up 1.3 percent in June (91 percent reported), bringing the performance for the second quarter to 6.4 percent. About 44 percent of all Nordic hedge funds are in positive territory for the first half of 2020.
Four of the five strategy categories in the Nordic Hedge Index were in the green in June, with fixed-income hedge funds leading the gains. The 32 Nordic fixed-income hedge funds gained 2.0 percent on average in June, cutting the average decline for the first half of the year to 0.3 percent. Equity hedge funds, meanwhile, were up 1.7 percent last month, taking the year-to-date performance back into positive territory at 0.3 percent. In June, funds of hedge funds and multi-strategy hedge funds gained 1.3 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively, whereas CTAs lost 1.1 percent on average.
The dispersion between last month’s best- and worst-performing members of the Nordic Hedge Index remained unchanged month-over-month. In June, the top 20 percent of Nordic hedge funds gained 5.0 percent on average, whereas the bottom 20 percent lost 2.2 percent on average. In May, the top 20 percent were up 5.7 percent on average and the bottom 20 percent lost 1.3 percent. About three in every four members of the Nordic Hedge Index with reported June figures posted gains last month.
Danish long/short equity fund Symmetry Invest was last month’s best-performing Nordic hedge fund with a gain of 10.1 percent. Managed by Andreas Aaen out of the Danish region of Aalborg, Symmetry Invest advanced 54.6 percent in the second quarter to reduce the year-to-date loss to 5.1 percent. Formue Nord Fokus, managed by Formue Nord’s five-member team from the same office as Aaen’s, followed suit with a return of 9.8 percent for the month of June. The market-neutral fund focused on financing small- and mid-cap companies gained 17 percent in the first half of 2020.
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 and 3.3 percent for the first six months of 2020. 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.
The Month in Review for June can be downloaded below:
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