Canadian hedge funds had a rough month in March, getting hit harder than the market at large by a downturn in stocks that whacked resources in particular.

The Scotiabank Canadian Hedge Fund Index fell 2.1 per cent in the month, when calculated by giving equal weighting to all the funds in the index. On a basis that gives bigger funds a heavier weighting, the drop was even worse, at 4.1 per cent.

For the month, Canada's benchmark stock index was down 2 per cent, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index of the biggest U.S.-listed stocks was up 3 per cent.

What would explain the bad month? It appears the resources bent of many Canadian hedge funds may yet again be the culprit. Anybody long mining and metals stocks had a grim March. April is looking a little better for larger capitalization metals stocks, but small-caps are still getting hammered.

Look no further than Sprott Hedge LP, resource maven Eric Sprott's flagship fund at Sprott Inc. . It was down 15 per cent last month.