By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
BOSTON (Reuters) - David Einhorn and Barry Rosenstein, two closely watched hedge fund managers ended June with losses, suffering some fallout from the markets sharp drop after Britain voted to leave the European Union a week ago.
Einhorn's Greenlight Capital told investors on Thursday that its fund slipped 0.3 percent in June, leaving it up 0.8 percent for the first six months of 2016, a person familiar with the numbers said. The small loss suggests that the New York-based manager sidestepped some of the worst losses that investors are bracing to see when European managers begin reporting their numbers.
Rosenstein's JANA Partners, another prominent New York-based fund, meanwhile reported heavier losses, telling clients that its JANA Partners fund lost 1.2 percent in June, leaving the fund off 5.8 percent halfway through the year, a person who has seen the JANA numbers said.
Greenlight and Jana are traditionally among the first to tell clients how they performed every month, making their numbers something of a bellwether for the roughly $3 trillion industry's performance.
A handful of Einhorn's biggest holdings, including Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), General Motors (NYSE:GM), and Time Warner, lost money this month, but the billionaire's overall performance in June was better than in May when the fund fell 1.9 percent.
The S&P 500 index ended the month nearly flat after having recouped more than half of the losses suffered in a two-day rout sparked by the British referendum a week ago.
Still many hedge funds, especially those who invested heavily in European stocks and financial firms, are expected to show bigger losses for the month in the wake of Britain's move.
The year so far has been a tough one for hedge funds, marked by losses in January when fears about growth in China and worries about the timing of the next U.S. rate hike sent markets tumbling. Investors are now expecting to see some of the industry's biggest funds shrink in size as managers are forced to return money to unhappy clients.