All six hedge fund strategies calculated by Dow Jones Hedge Fund Indexes posted net-of-fees losses in March and ended the first quarter in negative territory, according to preliminary esti

All six hedge fund strategies calculated by Dow Jones Hedge Fund Indexes posted net-of-fees losses in March and ended the first quarter in negative territory, according to preliminary estimates for the Dow Jones Hedge Fund Strategy Benchmarks. Definitive performance figures for the month will be available toward the end of April.

Merger arbitrage was down 92 basis points in March and ended the quarter as the leading strategy with a decline of 0.40 per cent, while equity market neutral posted a monthly decline of 0.06 per cent and is down just 0.52 per cent for the quarter.

Event driven fell 0.47 per cent in March, bringing its quarterly performance to a drop of 1.47 per cent, while convertible arbitrage declined 4.55 per cent for the month of March, accounting for most of the quarterly fall of 4.73 per cent.

By contrast, distressed securities fell 0.63 per cent, but earlier losses pushed its quarterly performance to a decline of 4.74 per cent. Equity long/short ended March down 1.60 per cent, bringing its cumulative decline for the quarter to 6.23 per cent.

By comparison, on a float-adjusted basis the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000, a broad measure of the US equity market, fell by 0.69 per cent in March and by 9.52 per cent for the first quarter, while the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Index was also down 1.60 per cent for the month and 9.33 per cent for the quarter. The Dow Jones Corporate Bond Index lost 0.67 per cent in March but remained up 0.88 per cent for the year so far.