Dymon Asia's $3 bln macro hedge fund lost 10.45 pct in Jan - data

By Nishant Kumar

LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Dymon Asia's $3.1 billion macro hedge fund lost 10.45 percent in January, performance data seen by Reuters showed, a month where many peers lost heavily after a surprise rise in the Swiss franc.

Singapore-based Dymon, set up by Danny Yong, a former founding partner and chief investment officer of Abax Global Capital (Other OTC: CGHC - news) , is one of Asia's biggest home-grown hedge fund firms with about $4.5 billion worth of assets under management.

The exact reason for the decline could not be confirmed but the loss wiped out a large chunk of the gains the hedge fund earned in 2014. The fund returned 18.75 percent last year, when macro hedge funds as measured by industry tracker Eurekahedge gained just 4 percent on average.

Dymon Asia President Jay Luo declined to comment.

Macro hedge funds, which focus on major economic trends and bet on assets such as stocks, currencies, bonds, commodities and indices, gained 2.2 percent last month, but several of them suffered losses after a surprise decision by the Swiss National Bank to remove a cap on the franc.

Losers include London-based hedge fund COMAC Capital, the $750 million Harness Macro Currency Strategy, which lost 8.8 percent, and the Fortress Macro Fund, which declined by about 7 percent. (Editing by Simon Jessop)