Managed futures posted a slightly positive performance for June as commodities edged higher during the month, according to a report by Lipper Tass.

Trend followers generally ended the month in positive territory as they were able to benefit from the recent price trends in commodities, especially gold, and on flattening yield curves on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Lipper Managed Futures/CTAs Index registered a positive return of 0.12 per cent for June, bringing the year-to-date performance to minus 3.90 per cent.

Long exposures to equities, however, dragged down manager performance as markets sold off on lingering concerns over Eurozone debt and weak US economic data.

The degree of dispersion among individual fund returns decreased from the previous month’s reading. A 33.61-percentage-point monthly performance difference for June divided the top and bottom performers of the actively reporting managers tracked by Lipper.

Managers with assets in excess of USD45m returned a better average performance at 0.47 per cent month on month—36 basis points above the average reading for the strategy.

Large managed futures managers returned a positive 1.21 per cent on average for the 12-month rolling period at the end of June (-0.19 per cent YTD).