EM funds under focus as top manager departs
As Fidelity manager, Alex Duffy, announces his departure from the firm, what are some other top-performing emerging markets funds for investors to consider?
The Fidelity Global Emerging Markets fund returned 41% over one year to 31 March, 2021, making it the fifth-best fund in the emerging market sector. It launched in 2014 and had been managed by Duffy, who worked at Fidelity for 16 years, since its inception.
In an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange, Fidelity said the fund would be taken over by Amit Goel and Punam Sharma from 28 May, 2021. Goel was manager of the Fidelity India fund while Sharma was co-manager of the Fidelity Latin America fund.
The other four funds which had outperformed the Fidelity one were CC RWC Global Emerging Markets which returned 56.7%, Northcape Capital Global Emerging Markets which returned 50.5%, Macquarie Arrowstreet Emerging Markets which returned 50.4% and Aberdeen Standard Emerging Opportunities which returned 42.1%.
Within FE Analytics’ Australian Core Strategies universe, the emerging market sector returned 32% over the same period.
The $96 million CC RWC Global Emerging Markets fund had large weightings to materials and industrials and said it had been helped by Brazil in recent performance. However, South Korea and China had been detractors due to commodity prices.
Looking at long-term performance, the Fidelity fund was the second-best performing fund over five years to 31 March, 2021, with total returns of 118%. The top-performing fund over the period was Legg Mason Martin Currie Emerging Markets with returns of 122% while Schroder Global Emerging Markets Wholesale was in third place with total returns of 98%.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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