Investorer hælder penge i Emerging Markets (ikke klar)

Der er meget kapital, der flytter grænser i øjeblikket. Især Emerging Markets er populære. Investorerne vender i høj grad ryggen til de traditionelle obligationsmarkedet, og de investerer i stedet i højrisiko EM-lande. Det fremgår af Financiel Times.

In an unprecedented shift of money from developed world stock markets to emerging markets, US investors last year put a record $40bn into emerging markets funds – almost double the amount of last year – while they pulled net $57bn from US, Europe and Japan funds. Inflows to global equities funds, which include exposure to emerging markets, were $40bn.

The trends have continued into 2008. Last week saw a record outflow from European equity funds, according to Emerging Portfolio Funds Research.

Brad Durham, the managing director of EPFR, said: “Just the notion of US fund flows turning negative is a new phenomenon.”

Assets in emerging markets funds doubled during the year, to more than $800bn. That compares with just $80bn 10 years ago

T Rowe Price, considered a conservative fund manager strongly rooted in the US, last year launched the country’s first Middle Eastern and North African mutual fund, which has attracted $400m from investors in only five months.

The flows data, from EPFR, cover both retail and institutional investors. The latter are following the same pattern by lifting their allocations to passive indexed funds at the same time as going into higher-risk alternative investments. Hedge funds last year had inflows of close to $200bn, according to Hedge Fund Research.

The huge inflows to emerging markets can have the effect of being a self-fulfilling prophecy, as the flow of money helps boost the prices of stocks in developing and frontier markets, lifting their already high returns.

Almost all emerging markets gained from investor inflows, except for China funds, where investors appeared to take their profits. After a deluge of new money in 2006, investors pulled back in 2007, according to EPFR.

The trend also has implications for the $10,000bn mutual fund industry, which remains heavily dependent on traditional actively managed funds.

The increased appetite for risk has seen traditional managers begin to offer a broad range of new funds and products, such as 130/30 funds, which are a form of modified long/short funds.