A strong performance from equities strategies helped hedge funds make gains in the first quarter of 2017 - but they continued to lag market indices.

Hedge funds posted a collective 2.63% rise in the three months to the end of March, according to data provider eVestment. Long/short equity strategies put in the best performance in the first quarter, notching up a 3.7% gain, followed by quantitative directional equity (3.14%) and relative value credit (2.7%).