David Semple

China, Brazil, and Hungary are strong performers

Emerging markets continued to gather momentum and flows following the June Brexit vote and, in the third quarter, outperformed most global indices including the S&P 500® Index.

Large-caps outpaced small-caps, again extending the performance gap for the year. Growth stocks staged a modest comeback over value stocks.

After a couple of quarters of weakness, China was among the best performing countries in the third quarter, accompanied by Brazil (a familiar outperformer this year) and Hungary. India also advanced. Turkey, on the other hand, declined substantially in 3Q as a result of the power grab attempt by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan following the unsuccessful coup. Technology stocks pushed higher during the quarter to become the third best performing sector for the year following energy and materials. Emerging markets utilities stocks were the worst performers.

Emerging markets challenged by Brexit and “populist politics”

Global markets have seen some significant challenges, including record low and negative bond yields and concern about the limits of quantitative easing. Markets have been challenged by Brexit, and concerns about the rise of “populist politics” – to name a few issues. Emerging markets specifically have seen some challenges, including political change in Brazil and an attempted coup in Turkey. Notwithstanding these risks, the summer was actually a period of restrained market volatility, which surprised many market participants.

We believe that China should remain stable

Many factors combined to create the stronger relative performance from emerging markets during the quarter, and so far this year, compared to global indices. First, the rapid appreciation of the U.S. dollar appears to have faded as market expectation of a U.S. Federal Reserve (“Fed”) rate hike has been pushed back until the end of the year and possibly next year. Second, despite the febrile headline grabbing comments of market pundits, China has not had any kind of “Minsky moment” (a collapse in asset prices following the exhaustion of credit expansion), whether related to capital outflows or leverage. Although we certainly concede that there are some significant imbalances in China’s economy, we believe that the extra “stabilizers” available to authorities will be used to attempt to achieve a reasonably stable outcome over the medium term. Third, the supply and demand equation for commodities looks more balanced. Fourth, earnings are likely to be much less disappointing this year, partly because expectations have been reset to lower levels, and partly because corporates are gradually acclimatizing to a slower growth world and generating more efficiencies, rather than focusing predominantly on top-line growth.

Reform efforts have been uneven in emerging markets, but we are encouraged by the long-term impact of the passage of the GST (goods and services tax) in India. In China, some reform efforts are often opaque and sometimes appear to represent “two steps forward then one back”. The outcome of tax amnesties in India and Indonesia appears to have been better than expected, and, finally, infrastructure projects seem to be developing greater impetus in a number of countries, for example, the Philippines.

Emerging markets have shown considerable relative strength in 2016

We remain constructive on the continuing outperformance of emerging markets in a global context. After an extended period in the wilderness, emerging markets assets have shown considerable relative strength so far this year. We feel that there is reasonable evidence for that outperformance to continue for the asset class as a whole. Broadly speaking, a stable U.S. dollar, better commodities’ prices, a more resilient earnings profile, and light positioning in the asset class ought to combine to increase the relative attractiveness of emerging markets.

Given the economic history of many emerging markets economies, there are many very large scale state-owned companies in the emerging markets universe. The prominence of these companies we feel comes less from superior competence than from historically state-sponsored systemic advantage which is unlikely to be sustained in the long run. In addition, we believe many of these large companies are essentially driven by global cyclical factors such as energy and materials. We will continue to implement our philosophy of structural growth at a reasonable price. We are not style agnostic, drifting into whatever appears to be working at any given time. We are style specific and we continue to find that there are many areas of superior, sustained growth that are essentially non-cyclical in nature and will likely provide reliable opportunities for well-managed companies to exploit.

Valuations for emerging markets equities and currencies are generally constructive, but not compellingly cheap. Expectations for earnings are much more realistic, and positioning in the asset class is cautious. Delayed expectations of further Fed tightening have also been positive for the asset class. Finally, it is perhaps hard to construct a case for alternative geographies and asset classes; arguably, the U.S. equity market looks overvalued, Japan is struggling with a strong currency, and Europe faces significant questions and uncertainties surrounding its political and economic future.

By David Semple, Portfolio Manager, Emerging Market Equity Strategy

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