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.

The Allard Growth Fund posted a strong gain of +11% in April, after rising +8.3% in March.

This result puts the Fund's 2009 return back in the black, and it now stands at +6.6%. With almost 80% of the Fund's portfolio invested in equities, and with equity markets up sharply in April, the strong result for the Fund comes as no surprise. The Fund also benefited from stronger Asian currencies against the US dollar, a trend the manager believes will continue to contribute positively to the Fund's overall return. Although the Fund's cash position remained relatively unchanged overall, the manager did increase exposure to Australian and Indonesian equity markets, while reducing positions in Thailand and China, due to political instability and a strong price performance respectively.

The Allard Investment Fund also performed strongly in April, up +7.8%, with a 2009 return of +4.1%.

The Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund rose +4.26% in April, and is now up +16.84% for 2009.

As global equity markets continued their rally into another month the Fund was able to take advantage of sharply increasing prices, taking profits in a number of successful positions towards the end of the month. Portfolio activity was light otherwise, the Fund now focusing on identifying fundamentally attractive stocks, a task which is becoming increasingly difficult due to the worsening outlook for many sectors.

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The MM&E Takeover Target Fund gained +9.35% in April on the back of corporate activity on three of its investee companies.

Asciano, Lion Nathan and ABB Grain were all subject to takeovers during April, and the Fund was able to profit on each company. These three companies were the largest positive contributors to the Fund's overall result, however Arrow Energy and Duet Group also made gains for the Fund. Negative returns came from positions in Oz Minerals and Bank of Queensland. This result brings the Fund's financial year return to -13.73%, and is the third consecutive month the Fund has posted a positive return.

MM&E's Capital Investment Trust No's 1 and 2 also recorded small gains in April, up +0.10% and +0.12% respectively, driven by a placement in Onesteel.

The PM Capital Absolute Performance Fund gained an outstanding +21.2% in April on the back of a strong weighting towards the technology sector.

Technology stocks, which comprise 23% of the Fund's portfolio, made broad based gains during the month, with KLA Tencor and Novellus providing strong returns for the Fund. UK stocks, including Barclays, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland also made positive contributions to overall return. Negative returns on currency markets partially offset these gains, however due to increased Australian dollar hedging and option strategies these losses were limited.

PM Capital also recording gains in their two other absolute return funds, the Australian Opportunities Fund up +8.3% for the month and the Enhanced Yield Fund up +2.5%.