It was a stock picker's market in June, with equities going sideways over the course of the month, and Canadian hedge funds were able to outperform benchmarks.

Scotia Capital's hedge fund index showed that domestic money managers were up 1.64 per cent in June on an equal-weighted basis. That's well above the flat performance of the S&P/TSX composite - it was 0.05 per cent - and the 0.02 per cent rise in the S&P 500.

There are 34 hedge funds in the Scotia Capital index; a fund must have at least $15-million in assets and a year of performance to be included. The investment dealer said that a month marked by "indecisive" markets, "Canadian hedge funds posted correspondingly mixed results on the month with out- and underperformance dispersed across strategies."

Year-to-date, the Scotia Capital hedge fund index is up 12.75 per cent on an equal-weighted basis, trailing the 15.4 per cent jump in the domestic equity benchmark, but well above the 1.8 per cent rise in the S&P 500.