India Markets Soar to New Record

Indian shares soared to new peaks on Friday after early returns suggested a resounding election victory for the pro-business BJP party, while a weak performance on Wall Street kept other emerging markets subdued.  Analysts say measures taken by the outgoing Congress party and the Reserve Bank of India have stabilised Indian markets in recent months, but gains have accelerated since the BJP named Narendra Modi as its candidate for prime minister in mid-September.

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-Igor P Purlantov

UAE and Qatar Get Emerging Market Status

Global markets index provider MSCI late on Wednesday officially reclassified the MSCI UAE and MSCI Qatar Indexes from Frontier Markets to Emerging Markets, coinciding with the May 2014 Semi-Annual Index Review.  “MSCI’s reclassification of these countries and their upcoming inclusion in our flagship MSCI Emerging Markets Index reflects the broader global opportunity set available to international institutional investors today,” said Baer Pettit, Managing Director and Global Head of the MSCI Index Business.

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-Igor P Purlantov

Emerging Markets Buy Cheap Dollars to Build Reserves

Nations from Colombia to Indonesia are taking advantage of the longest emerging-market currencies rally since 2009 to pile up record reserves, bolstering their ability to fend off the next foreign-exchange crisis. The 12 developing nations with the biggest foreign reserves outside of China added $34 billion in the past three months, lifting their combined holdings to $2.98 trillion on April 30, the most since Bloomberg began compiling the data in 2008. A gauge of 20 emerging-market currencies is recovering after tumbling in February to the lowest level since April 2009.

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-Igor P Purlantov

Pioneer Investments Bets on Emerging Markets

Count Pioneer Investments among the big money managers dipping a toe in emerging markets again after years of disappointing returns for the asset class. The Boston-based money manager, which oversees roughly US$250 billion in assets, this month began to move money into emerging markets, where it had previously been running an underweight position, said group chief investment officer Giordano Lombardo.

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-Igor P Purlantov

Calls to Scoop Up Emerging Market Assets

Emerging market assets have suffered through a brutal selloff, but now the sentiment tide is taking a sharper turn toward the once-shunned segment.  "It's been a tough 12-18 months for emerging markets. We find that positioning in these markets just broadly across the region is at its lowest point in years," Gokul Laroia, co-CEO for Asia Pacific at Morgan Stanley, told CNBC.

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Emerging Markets: Investing in the Philippines

When it comes to emerging markets, the average investor is focused on Brazil, Russia, India and China – known as the BRIC countries. But some smaller developing countries are also worth a look as they pull ahead in terms of economic growth and attract booming industries. One notable example: The Philippines grew its gross domestic product 7.2 percent in 2013, and the country has trumped India as the leading destination for call centers. Large corporations including JP Morgan Chase and Procter & Gamble recently expanded operations there. 

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-Igor P Purlantov

Nintendo to Introduce Console for Emerging Markets

Nintendo Co Ltd plans to introduce a new kind of games console and software for emerging markets as early as next year, to capitalize on higher entertainment budgets amidst a growing middle class, its chief executive told Reuters on Thursday.  Satoru Iwata said Nintendo would develop hardware and games oriented towards consumers with lower incomes and less gaming experience than those in developed countries.

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-Igor P Purlantov

Emerging Market Growth in Developed Market Stocks

Emerging market equities are not for the faint of heart. Even the most iron-bellied investors in the sector have had their share of heartburn over the past year.  First there was Fed tapering … and the slow-motion currency crisis that followed in Turkey, South Africa and Argentina, among others. Then there was the on-again/off-again unrest in Turkey and Venezuela. And now, we have the Russia/Ukraine crisis that has yet to be resolved.

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-Igor P Purlantov

Breaking Into a Volatile (But Rewarding) Emerging Market

Every economist has an opinion on the economic viability of emerging markets -- and those opinions rarely correlate. Emerging markets are shape-shifting creatures and this lack of fix creates tension among investors and businesses alike.  However, the business opportunities in BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China), are copious and companies that have enjoyed global success know that small actions can make a huge difference.   As such, business owners shouldn’t let the recent market instabilities put them off emerging economies. A little strategic thinking will allow entrepreneurs to identify the market opportunities in these volatile but rewarding economies. It just takes a little extra acumen.

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Igor P Purlantov

The Value Shift is on in Emerging Markets, Too

The recent woes suffered by momentum stocks and exchange traded funds are well-documented. At this point, it is not a stretch to say plenty of investors are aware that ETFs that were last year’s darlings have fallen out of favor.  That list includes large, well-known funds such as the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF and the First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index Fund. However, the shift to value sectors and ETFs from momentum plays has not been confined to U.S.-focused offerings. The same rotation is afoot in emerging markets.

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-Igor P Purlantov

Emerging Markets Are "Extremely Cheap"

David Lebovitz told Bloomberg there is uncertainty in the market at the moment.  He said that when considering opportunities for long term investors he would choose emerging markets as they are "extremely cheap".  This would represent a buying opportunity in the equity markets, with potential soon for the same opportunity in debt markets.

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-Igor P Purlantov

Emerging Markets That Merit a Closer Look

The place to look for stock bargains may finally be among developing economies, where share prices collectively are down 17% from their recent spring 2011 peak and stocks are trading at an average price/earnings ratio of 10.7 -- a 40% discount to shares of developed nations.  Notes Jeff Shen, head of emerging markets at BlackRock: "That's about the widest spread in more than 15 years."

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-Igor P Purlantov