Hedge fund returns, which languished in the first three months of 2008, turned positive in April as markets recovered some of their poise, according to data from Morgan Stanley Capital International Barra, the investment performance research provider.

The MSCI Hedge Invest Index showed funds showed an average total return of 0.67 per cent compared with the previous month.

Among the indices tracking returns of different hedge fund strategies, the strongest return in April was MSCI’s long bias index, at 2.8 per cent. The weakest performance in April was the fixed income index, down 0.83 per cent, the data showed.

So far this year, the MSCI Hedge Invest Index has shown a negative return of -3.24 per cent. By comparison, long-only investors tracking the MSCI World Index of equities in developed economies would have made negative returns of -4.23 per cent.