Hedge fund exit requests rise in third straight month this March - SS&C

LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - Investor (LSE: 0NC5.L - news) requests to pull money from hedge funds rose for the third straight month in March, slightly surpassing the number of redemptions flagged at the same time a year earlier, data on Friday showed.

The SS&C GlobeOp Forward Redemption Indicator - withdrawal requests divided by assets under administration - rose to 4.26 percent, up from 3.27 percent in February and 2.31 percent in January, data from fund administrator SS&C Technologies (NasdaqGS: SSNC - news) showed.

Redemption requests may not yet reflect the cautious optimism in markets - the Standard & Poor's 500 is up around six percent since the beginning of March.

March requests were up slightly from last year's 3.91 percent and 3.81 percent in 2014.

"This was the first year over year increase in the Forward Redemption Indicator in several months so it will be interesting to see if this proves to be an anomaly or a reversal of the trend," said Bill Stone, chairman and chief executive officer, SS&C Technologies.

SS&C compiled the index based on information provided by its clients, who represent about 10 percent of assets invested in the hedge fund sector worldwide. (Reporting by Maiya Keidan; Editing by Toby Chopra)