The St Helens Capital (SHC) Ailsa Fund was up +3.32%, and the SHC Arran Fund +3.68%, in April on the back of stronger equity markets.

The manager noted that one cause of the recent rally in equity markets may be the improvement in earnings downgrades, as well as the increasingly popular belief that bad news has already been priced into the market and a modest recovery in debt markets. In light of this the manager has been reviewing the defensive positions in the SHC Funds' portfolios, believing the best mispricing opportunities may come from the current discrepancy between defensive and cyclical stocks. However, should the current estimates of 2010 EPS growth prove too optimistic, the downgrade cycle may resume its downward trend.

The Antares Lodestar Absolute Return Trust posted a small gain of +1.60% in April, continuing the Fund's 2009 trend of posting small upside or downside returns.

The Fund increased its net exposure to 30% over the month, adding cyclical stocks such as Bradken and Western Areas, but also closing out many cyclical positions as these stocks reached their set price targets. These cyclical stocks were the key drivers of performance, with Bradken and Western Areas (which were both up over 30% for April) contributed most to the overall return. Axa Asia Pacific also performed well, the return enhanced by the Fund's participation in the company's capital raising. Rio Tinto, Village Roadshow and A J Lucas were the key detractors from performance. Although there are signs of recovery in global economic markets, the Fund remains underinvested in equities while lagging and coincident indicators remain negative.

The Fortitude Absolute Return Fund made a slight gain of +0.26% in April, while the Cayman Islands extension of the Fund made +0.13%, driven by yield and small cap portfolios.

The Fund's yield positions performed particularly strongly during April, with Macquarie Airports Tickets (the largest single name exposure in the portfolio) performing strongly. In the small cap area, the manager carried out a deliberate approach of trading event names, which proved successful. Derivative strategies struggled, though the manager remain committed to a long gamma view.

The Optimal Asia Absolute Trust, an Australian/NZ focused equity long short fund, was up +1.4% in April, underperforming the ASX 200 which gained +5.54%.

The Fund, which commenced investing in September 2008, has achieved a remarkably stable performance history given market conditions - the Fund returned +5.09% last year and is up +5.79% so far in 2009, with an annualised standard deviation of a low 3.63%.

None of the Fund's long positions made a loss during April, however index futures, and materials, retail and gaming sector short positions were all in the red. The manager commented that the ongoing short selling ban on financial stocks and REITs, as well as the large number of capital raisings in recent months, continues to detract from performance.

The Pengana Emerging Companies Fund posted a strong gain of +9.1% in April, outperforming the ASX200, which gained +5.54%.

The Fund, which invests exclusively in small cap stocks, benefited from the strong equity market rallies experienced worldwide since the beginning of March. Although it is not yet clear whether these rallies are bear market rallies or whether they signal the start of a broad economic recovery, small cap stocks have been outperforming larger stocks in recent weeks, which is a leading indicator of a recovery.

The manager noted that the strongest individual stock performances often came from the highest risk and lowest quality stocks, however as they remain committed to disciplined risk management of the Fund they were not able to capture the full upside of these returns. They also noted the small cap marketplace is significantly less crowded, after a large number of investors exited the sector after the events of last year. This has created opportunities for the Fund, which the manager will look to exploit.

The best individual stock positions included Bradken (up +93%), Thinksmart (up +50%) and CSV Group (up +35%). Negative positions included Ramsay Healthcare and Healthscope (both down -6%).

Platinum Investment Management enjoyed gains across the board in April, with every Platinum fund in the AFM database posting a positive result.

The Platinum European Fund (up +16.72%) and Platinum Asia Fund (up +11.05%) in particular posted impressive results. The European Fund, though an equity long short fund, was heavily long weighted in April, so as a result benefited from the ongoing equity market rally. The Asia Fund had a similar story, being heavily long weighted in the China and Hong Kong equity markets, and thus profiting from the market rally.

Other noteworthy results included the Platinum Unhedged Fund, an equity long only fund which gained +10.14%, and the Platinum International Technology Fund which was up +9.69%.

Regal Funds Management's two market neutral funds, the Tasman Market Neutral Fund and the Amazon Market Neutral Fund, both recorded losses in April in challenging market conditions for market neutral funds.

The Tasman Fund lost -2.9% in April, however remains up +3.8% for 2009. The Amazon Fund was down -3.8% but also retained a positive 2009 return of +1.35%. The disappointing performance for both Funds was attributed to short positions rallying harder than long positions. Apart from gains made in the industrial sector the losses were spread evenly across sectors. The manager confirmed they are hoping to add more short positions to both Funds' portfolios if the short selling ban is lifted later in May.

The BlackRock Asset Allocation Alpha Fund posted a negative return for the second straight month, down -2.54% in April. The Fund has been hurt by the ongoing rally in global equity markets, despite the abundance of negative news still in circulation.

The most significant detractor from performance for April were the Fund's equity/cash positions (mostly short positions on US equities) and currency strategies (primarily short Australian and Canadian dollar positions, and long Euro versus Swiss franc and Turkish lira). Although there were a number of potentially negative developments during the month, including the swine flu outbreak and possible bankruptcies of US auto manufacturers, markets remained positive and continued to rally strongly.

Although the manager believes economic conditions will continue to improve, they remain bearish in their outlook. In particular the ongoing difficulties in the US housing and financial industries, and the continuing need for deleveraging, will result in lower global economic growth over the long term regardless of central bank or government actions. As a result the manager remains skeptical about the sustainability of the current rally and will adjust the Fund's portfolio accordingly.

Blue Sky Capital Management's World Fund was up +5.28% in April, boosting the Fund's 2009 return to +15.27%.

The Fund, which is a top-down fundamental global macro fund, benefited from stronger equity markets throughout April, Asia-Pacific equities contributing +8.56% to the overall result. North American equities and FX also made smaller positive contributions (+1.9% and +1.02% respectively), while index futures lost -3.12%. Net exposure to equity markets was sharply increased during April, up to 70.75% by the end of the month, compared to a 49.28% net exposure at the end of March.

The Herschel Absolute Return Fund posted a gain of +4.56% in April, having significantly increased its equity exposure since the start of the year.

The gross exposure of the Fund at the end of April stood as 56.2% (net exposure 50.6%), compared to January when gross exposure was only 28.7% (net 25.1%). As a result the Fund was able to capitalise on the ongoing rally in equity markets during April. In particular, consumer staples (+11.9%) and consumer discretionary (+12.1%) sectors were up strongly, driven by corporate activity in ABB Grain and Lion Nathan, which contributed significantly to the Fund's overall result.