Hedge funds post worst annual return since 2011: Eurekahedge

The Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index fell 0.58 percent in December while the MSCI World Index declined 2.23 percent, Eurekahedge said, giving hedge funds an average annual performance of 1.56 percent.

"Returns across hedge fund strategic mandates were disappointing during December with most finishing the month in negative territory," Eurekahedge said.

"In particular, long positions into European equities suffered losses as ECB’s early December meeting proved to be a disappointment for investors leading to a slump in European equities," it said.

The best-performing strategy indexes over the year were the Eurekahedge Arbitrage Hedge Fund Index, up 4.46 percent, followed by the CBOE Eurekahedge Relative Value Hedge Fund Index which was up 4.30 percent.

The worst-performing was the CBOE Eurekahedge Tail Risk Hedge Fund Index, which fell 7 percent.

(Reporting by Simon Jessop; editing by Jason Neely)