Emerging markets funds hot, China not, for investors this summer
Investors have turned away from China-only funds this summer, according to one online retail investment platform. But emerging markets funds have proved popular.
Rplan.co.uk said that between 1 June and 15 August, it recorded a 75 per cent increase in flows to emerging markets funds compared with the same period last year.
Meanwhile, China-only funds experienced a decline of 54 per cent.
Read more: Emerging markets are winning the dash for cash after Brexit vote
The platform’s chief investment officer, Stuart Dyer, said that the MSCI Emerging Market Equity Index fell by 50 per cent between 2010 and the end of 2015. But it is up this year by 14 per cent.
“Some market commentators are saying there is a turn in the cycle of emerging market equities and this is fuelling investors to increase their exposure in this asset class,” said Dyer.
“In contrast to this, the Shanghai Composite Index is down by around 14 per cent this year, and this follows a huge level of volatility in Chinese stocks last year.
“This, combined with concerns about the Chinese economy and the actions of the government to intervene in its stock market, has spooked some investors and many are voting with their feet and withdrawing their investments here to go elsewhere.”
Read more: Asset manager reports growth and talks up emerging market after Brexit vote
He added: “Emerging markets are experiencing a bit of a boom in terms of investor interest but they have gone cold on the biggest emerging market in the world – China.”
Rplan has access to more than 2,000 funds, including 150 focusing on emerging markets.
Its five most popular emerging markets funds over the last six weeks have been: Neptune India, Jupiter India, BlackRock Emerging Markets Equity Tracker, JPM Emerging Markets and Neptune Africa.