Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Nordic hedge funds concluded the first half of 2023 on a positive note after registering the second-highest monthly gain of the year at 0.9 percent (as reported by 93 percent of funds). All five strategy categories in the Nordic Hedge Index recorded gains, with trend-following CTAs and equity-focused funds demonstrating the strongest performance on average.
Nordic CTAs achieved their best month of the year, marking a third consecutive month of gains. Led by traditional trend-followers, the small group of Nordic CTAs recorded an average gain of 1.7 percent in June to reduce their year-to-date decline to 1.5 percent. Equity hedge funds, the largest strategy group in the Nordic Hedge Index, advanced 1.2 percent on average, ending the first half of 2023 with a 2.1 percent increase. Fixed-income hedge funds gained an average of 0.6 percent in June, bringing their 2023 advance to 2.9 percent. Diversified hedge funds and multi-manager funds ended the month of June with a similar 0.2 percent gain.
At the country level, the Finnish hedge fund industry performed best for a second consecutive month, closing the first half of 2023 in positive territory at 3.7 percent after booking an average gain of 2.3 percent in June. Norwegian hedge funds recorded an average gain of 1.6 percent last month to end the first six months of the year up 3.4 percent. Danish hedge funds advanced by 0.7 percent in June and 1.9 percent in the first half of 2023. The Swedish hedge fund industry, which leads in the Nordic region with the highest number of active hedge funds, gained 0.5 percent on average in June to bring the 2023 performance in positive territory at 0.2 percent.
The performance dispersion between the best- and worst-performing members of the Nordic Hedge Index remained broadly unchanged month-over-month. In June, the top 20 percent of Nordic hedge funds gained 4.3 percent and the bottom 20 percent lost 2.4 percent, resulting in a top-to-bottom dispersion of 6.7 percent versus 6.8 percent in May. In May, the top 20 percent were up 2.0 percent on average and the bottom 20 percent were down 4.9 percent. About two in every three members of the Nordic Hedge Index with reported June figures achieved gains last month.
Top Performers in June
The list of the ten best-performing constituents of the Nordic Hedge Index in June was dominated by equity funds and trend-following CTAs. Activist fund Accendo emerged as the top performer in the Nordic Hedge Index with an advance of 8.7 percent after a challenging start to the year. Despite this recovery, the activist fund ended the first half of 2023 down 26 percent.
Coeli Global Opportunities, a long/short equity fund run by Andreas Brock and Henrik Milton, closed the first half of the year with an increase of 15.3 percent after a gain of 8.4 percent in June. The two equity funds under Helsinki Capital Partners, HCP Focus and HCP Quant, followed suit with advances of 6.0 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively. HCP Focus, which runs a concentrated long-only equity strategy focused on companies benefiting from the digital revolution, is this year’s best-performing member of the Nordic Hedge Index with a 46.2 percent gain.
Banking sector-focused equity fund Borea Utbytte gained 5.8 percent in June to end the first half of the year up 10.9 percent. Coeli Renewable Opportunities, a long-biased long/short equity fund focused only on renewables, recorded a 5.6 percent gain in June, bringing its return since launching in February to 7.1 percent.
The Month in Review for June 2023 can be downloaded below:
