The bank estimates that hedge funds generated average returns of 7% during the first six months of the year, comfortably ahead of the long-term first-half average of 4.1%. Rather than remaining concentrated in one segment of the market, hedge funds have shifted exposure over recent years from semiconductor manufacturers to power infrastructure and data centres before increasingly allocating capital to memory chip companies over the past 12 months. The bank said net demand for hedge funds has reached a record high, with investor appetite exceeding that seen across other alternative asset classes. For the first time in five years, every major hedge fund strategy attracted positive net inflows during the first six months of the year. Quantitative strategies continued to receive strong investor support, while multi-strategy funds recorded their largest inflows in five years.