Although last year was one to forget for Asian hedge funds, in particular long/short equity managers who ended the year down nearly 14 per cent, things have started to take on a more positive hue iPARA_BREAK_SENTINEL_9f8e7d6c

Although last year was one to forget for Asian hedge funds, in particular long/short equity managers who ended the year down nearly 14 per cent, things have started to take on a more positive hue in the first quarter of 2012. Asia ex-Japan LSE strategies are already up nearly 9 per cent as at end-February, while the event-driven shops are up an impressive 12.95 per cent according to Eurekahedge. And as reported on channelnewsasia.com this week, Asian hedge funds have attracted USD600million in net fund flows since the start of the year compared to USD2.7billion in net outflows in Q4 2011. Singapore-based Asean Investment Management has been bullish on Vietnamese stocks and seen its positions gain 25 per cent so far this year, compared to 10 per cent in Thailand and 3 per cent in Indonesia. The firm’s CIO, David O’Neil said they had been “deploying aggressively” into Vietnam since December. “We have around 55 per cent weighting at this point, and that is contributing massively to our performance. We have underweighted the expensive markets that we have made a lot of money on over the years like Thailand and Indonesia,” said O’Neil.