Hedge fund winners and losers turn extreme in wild Asian markets

Chinese regulatory tightening ensnared industries ranging from e-commerce and after-school tutoring to ride-hailing, sending two gauges of Hong Kong-listed stocks to the biggest declines

One of the wildest runs for Asian markets in recent memory helped drive the gap between the region’s hedge fund winners and losers to new extremes.

While Franchise Capital Management Ltd., Sylebra Capital Ltd. and Brilliance Asset Management Ltd. nursed losses exceeding 20% from China’s regulatory clampdown, global growth-stock corrections and short squeezes, others including Aspex Management (HK) Ltd. and Asia Research & Capital Management Ltd. scored gains of about 30%.

“I don’t think I’ve seen such high dispersion in Asia equity long-short hedge funds really as long as the market effectively existed,” said Richard Johnston, Asia head of Albourne