Pengana Capital, which manages a range of strategies both in Australia and offshore has produced positive returns from all seven of its underlying absolute return funds in July.

Best performing of the funds was the Pengana Global Resources fund which returned 8.60% for the month, to take YTD performance to +22.78% after a disappointing 2008, and annualised returns since March 2007 to +8.86%.

Pengana's Australian Equity long/short fund also notched up a respectable 8.50% in July, to take 2009 YTD returns to +24.52%, -4.09% over the past 12 months, and 9.29% annualised since inception in May 2004.

Excalibur Funds Management AUD/JPY FX strategy lost 0.11% in the last few days of July, having been in positive territory up until that point. The fund remains +3.15% in 2009 YTD, with 12 month performance +5.12% and an annualised performance since inception in July 2006 of +19.09%.

The fund's strategy predominantly involves short term technical contrarian signals in the Australian and New Zealand currencies and their crosses. the strategy has a focus on risk management and capital preservation with particular attention given to the relationship between volatility and leverage.

In what the manager described as an extremely difficult month the fund also reported an increase in FUM to US$79m.

Blue Fin Capital, which uses short term quantitative trading models for their FX and Commodity managed accounts, maintained returns for 2009 YTD in positive territory for July, although returns for the month were largely flat.

The FX strategy which has been operating since January 2002 and has returned an annualised 9.53% since that time, is +3.94% YTD in 2009, and +12.02% over the past 12 months.

The commodity strategy, established in April 2007, has returned 11.33% annualised, is +0.48% in 2009 YTD, and +0.82% over the past 12 months

View the detailed profile for Blue Fin's Managed Commodities Account.

View the detailed profile for Blue Fin's Managed FX Account.

Fortitude Capital, which has the extraordinary record of having not produced a negative return for the last 19 months, has returned +0.55% for July to take YTD performance to +4.13% and +12.1% for the past 12 months.

Fortitude is broadly a market neutral fund, achieving this via multiple strategies across ASX listed securities. In July's strong market (the largest percentage gain in the market since December 1993) the manager's long gamma derivative overlay struggled, but this was more than offset by M&A activity as opportunities arose from corporate Australia's recapitalisation process which has now spread to the smaller listed sector.

Since March 2005 the fund has only suffered 3 negative months with the largest drawdown being -0.50% in December 2005, reflecting the manager's major focus on risk management and capital preservation.

Visit Fortitude Capital's Absolute Return Trust fund profile.

The Lanterne Arran Fund has returned 0.04% in July to bring 2009 YTD to 23.72%.

The manager noted that cyclical stocks, which have outperformed the defensive sector as global growth forecasts have been revised up, are looking overbought in the short term as companies report annual results in August. Looking beyond that, they noted that the outlook for cyclicals, particularly resource stocks remains positive as the global de-stocking cycle ends.

The Arran Fund is Lanterne's offshore fund, launched in August 2004 and has funds under management of US$30m out of Lanterne's total FUM of US$90m. Both the Arran and Ailsa (onshore) funds use an actively managed long short trading style investing primarily in ASX100 stocks. Top down macro themes and bottom up fundamental research combine with active trading to construct portfolios designed to provide returns regardless of market conditions.

Lanterne's annualised return since 2002 is 12.63%.

Commodity Strategies Ltd, who operate a systematic trading strategy across both a long/short and long only portfolio, made significant gains across both in July with broad based attribution, particularly in energy and metals trading. The Long only portfolio has gained 16.98% in 2009 YTD, and has an annualised return of 12.82% since inception in December 1999. The long/short portfolio, which was launched in October 2007, has gained 11.29% in 2009 and has returned an annualised 24.27% over that period.

Visit Commodity Strategies' Long Only Programme profile.

Visit Commodity Strategies' Long/Short Programme profile.

The Bennelong long/short (market neutral) equity fund has returned 2.24% for July to take their 2009 YTD return to +9.52% and their annualised return since inception in February 2002 to 20.61%. Bennelong noted that the local market had recorded its strongest one month gain since December 1993 as investors gained confidence from better than expected economic data, second quarter company results in the US, and stronger commodity prices. However the manager also noted evidence that investors are possibly re-evaluating the pace and extent of some of these moves. Looking forward the manager note that the S&P200 has rallied 37% from the low in March, while forward earnings (according to Goldman Sachs JB Were) have been downgraded approximately 5%, leading to a 42% expansion in the Index's R/E ratio. As such they feel that further expansion is unlikely and will be dependent on earnings recovery in FY 2011 and beyond. View the detailed profile for Bennelong's Long Short Equity Fund.

Pengana's Australian Equity Long Short fund outperformed the ASX with a return of 8.5% in July, to bring 2009 YTD performance to 24.52%.

Like many of their long biased peers, Pengana's Australian L/S equity fund has rebounded strongly on the back of the sharp rally in equities to produce a YTD performance of 24.52% and an annualized return since inception in May 2004 of 9.29%.

Pengana noted that they had deliberately avoided aggressive shorting in recent times but intend to resume as the opportunities arise on a selective basis, as the domestic reporting season commenced. At the time of writing the portfolio has a 53% net equity market exposure.

Macquarie's Special Events fund continues to prosper as capital raisings power performance +3.93% for July, and +30.12% 2009 YTD.

1 year return: +24.55%. Annual (Oct 2003) +12.44%

The Special Events fund, which incorporates a multi strategy process including M&A risk arbitrage, buy-write, event related trading and capital raising reported that Capital Raising was the most profitable (+2.4%) as a result of an active pipeline continuing with $10.4b spread over 15 transactions across all sectors during the month.

The targeted buy write strategy produced a further 0.8% return in spite of implied market volatility declining by 3-4% over the month as the market rallied on expectations of improving economic conditions. The market declined by over 5% early in the month, only to rally by almost 13% to finish 7.3% higher.

Regal Funds Management's Amazon and Tasman funds have returned 4.97% and 4% respectively for July, bringing 2009 YTD performance to 15.97% and 19.94%.

The manager noted that the highlight for the month was the financial sector which contributed strongly, largely through strong bounces in three recently capitalised property trusts, in addition to long positions in the banks. Coal seam gas stocks in the energy sector also contributed positively, whilst on the short side domestic cyclicals suffered as the Australian economy proved to be more resilient than anticipated.

Tasman: 1 year return: -2.88%. Annual: (May 2007) +16.17%
Amazon: 1 year return: +0.29%. Annual: Sept 2005) +21.44%

Both the Amazon and Tasman funds are market neutral, with the Amazon fund based in the Cayman Islands and the Tasman fund domiciled in Australia. Both funds are predominantly invested in Australia, with limited exposure to European stocks.