Emerging Markets Lead Barclay Hedge Fund Index Gains

by Carla Johnson, Investors Offshore.com

11 June 2007

Hedge fund values rose for the 11th straight month, gaining 2.3% in May, according to flash estimates from the Barclay Hedge Fund Index.

“This is the third longest stretch of continuous profitable months since the Barclay Hedge Fund Index was launched in January 1997,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of The Barclay Group.

“The record for consecutive profitable months by hedge funds was the 18-month period from October 2002 through March 2004.”

The strong performance in May was led by the Emerging Markets sector, which gained 4.70%. Emerging Markets is up 11.77% for the first five months of 2006.

“The equity indices for three of the four BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries had strong gains in May,” says Waksman.

“Brazil was up 11.56%, China gained 6.72%, and India rose 6.91%. Only Russian equities were down, losing 7.23%.”

As of June 5th, 89% of funds reporting to Barclay were profitable for the month of May.

Overall, 17 out of 18 hedge fund indices were up in May. The Barclay Equity Long Bias Index gained 3.69%, Technology was up 3.45%, Merger Arb rose 2.58%, and Global Macro gained 2.24%.

The Barclay Equity Short Bias Index lost ground in May, down 2.92%.

The Barclay Hedge Fund Index is up 6.88% for the year.

The Barclay Group, founded in 1985, actively tracks 6,200 hedge funds and managed futures programs. Barclay has created and regularly updates 18 proprietary hedge fund indexes and eight managed futures indexes.

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