03/16/2006
The S&P Hedge Fund Index gained 0.8 percent in February, bringing its year-to-date return to 2.83 percent, Standard & Poor’s reported yesterday. This second month of gains comes after a poor showing during the fourth quarter of 2005.
A strong performance rally in the convertible arbitrage sector and the busiest month for mergers & acquisitions since January of 2000 drove the largest gains, which were concentrated in the S&P Arbitrage Index, a component of the overall index, which was up 1.24 percent.