Emerging market equities post best two quarters on record

By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow

Emerging market equities have surged by 60% over the second and third quarters, making them the best two quarters of return on record, according to a report issued today by Merrill Lynch.

Emerging market Asian equities rose by 18.7% in the third quarter and 58% in the past two quarters, the strongest two quarters since 1993. Year-to-date both Emerging Markets (61.2%) and Emerging Market Asia (59.7%) are big outperformers of developed market equities, which has a return of 22.5%.

Analysts at Merrill Lynch attributed the drivers of performance were to global credit markets  rather than China and commodities.

Russian equities performed the best among emerging markets of EMEA in September. The MSCI Russia Index rose +15% in September, outperforming the MSCI EM EMEA Index, which rose +5.4% in the same month. Merrill said the best performing sector was financials, while the worst performing was healthcare.

The report said the EM & Asia winners are: Indonesia, Korea, Turkey, Russia, Brazil, tech, materials while the EM & Asia losers are: Japan, China, Israel, healthcare and telcos.

By Ivan Anderzhanov in Moscow Emerging market equities have surged by 60% over the second and third quarters, making them the best two quarters of return on record, according to a report issued today by Merrill Lynch. Emerging market Asian equities rose by 18.7% in the third quarter and 58% in the past two quarters, ...