What a miserable quarter it has been. With the AsiaHedge Composite down 2.62% in March, contributing to a first quarter aggregate loss of 5.46%, there is nonetheless some small measure of encouragement to be taken from the fact that the MSCI Pacific Free Index fell by a much larger 9.57%. The outperformance of a good number of Asia-Pacific hedge funds, in Japan especially, helped bring about the better numbers. The index for Japan in US dollars, fell by 4.02% over the quarter, compared to TOPIX¹s veritable dive of 17.8%. China managers did well too, although they got off to a poor start at the beginning of the year.They did much better in March¹s bloodbath, falling just 4.75% compared to the market benchmark¹s drop of 12.18%. Indeed, overall the AsiaHedge Chinese Equity Index fell by 10.75% for the first quarter of 2008, eclipsed by the MSCI China Index¹s fall of 23.69%. With Australia clocking -9.93% compared to the Australian All Ordinaries¹ 15.75% loss for the quarter. In line with the other major single country markets, India managers were also ahead of the market curve, but only just. The AsiaHedge Indian Equity Index fell by 22.67% in the first quarter, compared to the Sensex¹s drop of 22.88%. Both regional strategies did well in comparative terms. Asia ex-Japan did drop a grim 9.44%, but then the MSCI Pacific ex-Japan Index fell further, by 13.02%. In the Asia including Japan space, a first quarter return of -6.82% compared to -9.57% for the MSCI Pacific Free.