Monday, April 13, 2015

Emerging Market Equities Are On Fire In The 2Q

The average stock in USD terms in the MSCI Emerging Market Index is up an impressive 6.2% in just 8 trading days so far in the second quarter. This compares to 2.5% for MSCI Developed Market Index.

On a country basis, China is nearly 18% higher QTD. Russia continues to its impressive streak as the best performing country in 2015 as it is over 13% higher this month. Of the 23 Emerging Market country indices, only two (Egypt and Greece) are negative this month. Even Latin American countries are getting into the action as Brazil is up over 8.5% and Colombia is over 7% higher. However, three of the five Latin American countries are still negative year-to-date.

MSCI Emerging Markets Performance By Country
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On a sector basis, breadth is pretty strong. All 10 sectors are positive for the month and six of the 10 sectors are over 6% higher for the month. Energy is the best performing sector (as it is in the developed markets) and information technology is the worst. Year-to-date, four EM sectors are up over 10%.

MSCI Emerging Markets Performance By Sector
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Lastly, the highest of the high fliers are all out of China. The top 10 best performing stocks QTD are all from China and are up an astounding 50% on average. 6.3% of all MSCI Emerging Market stocks are up at least 20% this quarter. And 20% of all EM stocks are up at least 10%. Only about 4% of developed market stocks are up at least 10%.

Top 10 Best Performing Stocks QTD
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