Four Picks From an Emerging Markets Pro

Ask Jean-Louis Scandella which emerging market countries he likes, and he nearly gets angry.  Macroeconomic punditry and “top down” country approaches are plentiful, as the developing world braces for the Federal Reserve’s first interest-rate hike in years. But individual stocks are what matter to Scandella, head of equities at Baring Asset Management and co-manager of its emerging market portfolio strategy. He looks for growing companies, and is willing to pay a premium for them because there are few “sleeping beauties.”

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Emerging Markets Retreat From Abyss

Finally, there may be some relief for emerging-market investors.  Strategists at banks from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Bank of America Corp. say that developing-nation assets are bottoming out following three years of losses in currencies and stocks.  It’s not that they are likely to embark on a rally. Rather, that the mood among investors has become so depressed, even a marginal improvement in the economic outlook will be enough to shift sentiment and drive up assets such as the Mexican peso, Russian ruble bonds and Indian stocks, the analysts say.

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Funds Mull Best Way to Get Emerging Markets Exposure

While money managers continue to grapple with trying to pinpoint the right time to add to emerging markets allocations, institutional investors also are bombarding them with questions about the right way to gain exposure.  Sources said pension fund allocations to emerging markets remain low relative to the percentage of world GDP these countries represent, and some institutional investors still have no exposure. The Institute of International Finance said in its April 2015 Trends in Investment Fund Portfolio Allocation report that about 13% of investors' equities and bonds portfolios were allocated to emerging markets.

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Emerging Markets a Mess, Need a 'Country by Country' Look

The rout in global commodities prices has claimed a number of formerly high-flying developing economies — and their asset markets — as victims. Despite the widespread carnage, there are still some regions that may be relatively attractive to investors.

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How Some Emerging-Market Investors Actually Made Money

In a rough year for emerging markets, some of the most treacherous trades are paying off.  Bonds issued by Latin American oil companies, Ukrainian banks and Chinese real-estate developers are among the best-performing assets in developing economies in 2015.  Fund managers who snapped up these battered bonds—and other assets deemed risky even by the standards of emerging-market investors—are delivering positive returns while benchmarks languish in negative territory.

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