*

Bridgewater Associates' flagship fund up 14.4% through

June 26

*

Hedge funds show mid-to-high single-digit gains

*

Citadel Wellington gains 8.1%

*

Aspect Capital Diversified fund returns 14.3% in year to

end

June

(Adds Caxton and Cinctive performances, quote, HFR index)

By Carolina Mandl and Nell Mackenzie

NEW YORK/LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) - Hedge funds

delivered a mixed first-half performance, with macro fund Caxton

Associates struggling to maintain gains while a couple of

multi-strategy and systematic funds went gangbusters, according

to sources and public data.

Andrew Law's Caxton Associates, which places bets on macro

economics, finished last month flat after a yearly performance

to May-end that was up 4%, two sources familiar with the matter

said.

Not all macro strategies struggled. Bridgewater Associates'

flagship fund was up 14.4% this year through June 26, according

to a source.

The HFR Global Hedge Fund index capped the first half with a

meager 2.89% gain. A first sample of hedge fund numbers obtained

by Reuters shows there was some performance diversion in the

industry during a period in which a tech boom lead global

markets to a strong performance.

"There was such a dispersion between returns that the

benchmarks don't always tell you exactly how a certain strategy

is doing," said Lilly Knight, K2 Advisors head of investment

management.

Some multi-strategy hedge funds were able to post

double-digit returns in the first half of the year.

Cinctive Capital was up 11%, as its bets around the impact

of artificial intelligence on energy, utilities and technology

paid off.

Schonfeld Strategic Advisors' flagship fund rose 10.3%,

while the AQR Apex Strategy gained 13.5%. All of them beat

giants Citadel and Millennium Management.

Global fundamental long/short equities hedge funds posted

gains of 7.55% in the first half, according to a Goldman Sachs

prime brokerage note.

Below the surface, the top performers posted almost 15% in

gains, while the underperformers fell 2.22%

On average, hedge funds struggled to keep pace with the

MSCI's 47-country world stock index, which rose

roughly 11% in the first half.

The S&P 500 soared 15% in the same period, mainly due

to a handful of megacap stocks such as Nvidia ( NVDA ).

"There are hedge funds that own the megacap names that

rallied in the first half of the year, but they're not owned at

anything close to market cap weight," said Craig Bergstrom,

chief investment officer of Corbin Capital.

Philippe Laffont's Coatue Management rose 9.2% in the first

half, a source said.

Aspect Capital's Diversified fund, which trades

systematically, returned 14.27% for the year to end June, said a

source. The hedge fund, which currently oversees $9.1 billion of

assets, made gains in agricultural markets, currencies and

stocks.

Kairos Partners' senior portfolio manager Mario Unali said

that going forward, hedge funds will face more challenges after

a strong rally. "Markets are richer than a year ago and

uncertainty is now higher," he said.

Check below some hedge fund performances:

Hedge fund Performance -

H1

Schonfeld 10.3%

Strategic

Partners

Schonfeld 11%

Fundamenta

l Equities

Citadel 8.1%

Wellington

Citadel 13.7%

Tactical

Trading

Citadel 9.9%

Global

Equities

Citadel 2.2%

Global

Fixed

Income

Bridgewate 14.4%*

r Pure

Alpha

Marshall 10.4%

Wace

Eureka

Marshall 14.47%

Wace

Market

Neutral

TOPS

Marshall 8.06%

Wace

Global

Opportunit

ies

Winton 10.1%

Multistrat

egy

Winton 9.5%

Diversifie

d Trend

Trading

Aspect 14.27%

Capital's

Diversifie

d

Millennium 6.9%

Management

Coatue 9.2%

Management

Cinctive 11%

Capital

Caxton 0%

Associates

AQR Apex 13.5%

Strategy

*Through June 26