Facebook Taps Emerging Markets With Stripped Down App

Facebook has quietly launched a stripped-down version of its mobile app, aimed at emerging market users with low-end mobile devices.  The social media giant confirmed to CNBC on Monday that "Facebook Lite" was an official app. It is available in eight countries: Bangladesh, Vietnam, Nigeria, Nepal, South Africa, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

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How Much Should You Invest In Emerging Markets?

What’s the right amount to invest in emerging markets? Increasingly, investors have taken larger bets that returns from giant Brazilian miners or Indonesian factories will beat more sedentary gains expected from companies at home.  One investment outfit believes this trend has gone too far. Rplan berated investors this week for putting more than 20pc of their portfolio in exotic funds. It undertook research that found 26pc of its investors who make their own decisions had put more than a fifth of their money in emerging markets.

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A Bargain Hunter in Emerging Markets

Emerging markets have been a tough place lately for equity-fund managers to generate positive returns. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index was down 2.2% last year, as investors favored U.S. stocks.  The $3.2 billion Thornburg Developing World fund lost 3.04% in 2014, trailing Morningstar’s Diversified Emerging Markets category by three basis points (0.03%). But manager Lewis Kaufman, 39, who has run the fund since it launched in late 2009, has done well over longer periods. The fund’s five-year annual return of 7.7% is at the top of its peer group.

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India: Fairest Emerging Market of Them All?

The Indian economy is set to kick off the year as the favorite among emerging markets thanks to a series of positive economic developments coupled with the accelerating pace of Prime Minister Modi's reforms.  "We expect India's stock market to generally outperform emerging and developing peers in 2015," said Howie Lee, investment analyst at Phillip Futures, in a report last week. The Sensex stock index was Asia's second-best performing market in 2014, rising around 30 percent.

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