A new report from Credit Suisse (CS) has highlighted the full extent of the losses experienced by hedge funds in 2008.

The Broad Index - a diversified and asset weighted hedge fund index comprising of 496 hedge funds - finished the year down 19% - which worked out at $582bn and was the first time the industry has seen net asset losses for six years.

However, despite these losses, CS showed hedge funds fared better than broad equity indices overall, with the MSCI World Index down 42%.