Searching for Alpha Consistency in Emerging Market Equities
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Searching for Alpha Consistency in Emerging Market Equities Gaurav Mallik Chief Portfolio Strategist Adhi Mallik, CFA Investment Product Manager Searching for Alpha Consistency in Emerging Market Equities In Brief • Despite recent headwinds related to country-specific • Investors looking to capitalize on the active economies and trade wars, emerging markets opportunities available in emerging markets continue to be a source of alpha for investors. should consider active managers with a proven track • The success of emerging markets in the past has been record of selecting stocks from a broad universe. based on themes. The major theme for growth going • Investors that are seeking a more representative forward is firmly based on the rise of the middle class exposure to China should consider allocating and rising consumption in these markets. to managers with a more unified approach to • Index replication is challenging due to liquidity the region. constraints and high trading costs, making skillful delivery of index exposure hard to find. State Street Global Advisors 2 Searching for Alpha Consistency in Emerging Market Equities Currency woes in Turkey. Political and economic Abandoning emerging markets now would mean stresses in South Africa. The potential for globally- ignoring a strong track record of growth. In fact, disruptive trade wars. These and other recent since early 2005 emerging economies have been the developments have caused investor sentiment to sour sole driver of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth on emerging markets. Many institutional investors globally. In every quarter over the past twelve years, understandably are considering their overall allocation emerging markets have made a contribution to overall to emerging markets with a heightened sense of global growth in excess of 50%, averaging 63% in urgency in light of these events. As investors consider the seven years since the global financial crisis. And their options, we are encouraging a measured response recent troubles in select countries — like domestically to recent volatility. Decreasing allocations to emerging generated credit and housing bubbles, debt overhang, markets — or choosing not to invest in the region at low level of foreign currency reserves, or reliance on all — may not lead to favorable investment outcomes hot money flows — should not color investor sentiment over the long-term. In fact, what may be productive for emerging markets as a whole. It is important to look is to review the overall emerging market equity at a spectrum of metrics instead of relying on any allocation and determine what is driving the risk and one measure; strong economic fundamentals coupled return of the portfolio. As we will address in further with important demographic and consumption detail, adopting a beta exposure is not a simple decision shifts are poised to continue propelling growth in due to the associated trading costs and liquidity emerging markets. constraints, nor can all active managers be treated State Street’s research indicates that emerging markets equally as the number of products beating the index will provide higher risk-adjusted returns over the next continues to drop. ten years and beyond (See Figure 1). Figure 1: Over the Next 10 Years, Emerging Markets are Likely to Provide Higher Risk-adjusted Returns Compared to Developed Markets Expected return and volatility in equities over the next 10-plus years — emerging markets versus developed markets Emerging-market Equities Developed-market Equities Expected Return (%) 9.2 6.3 Expected Volatility (%) 21.2 14.4 Expected Return/Vol 0.42 0.39 Source: State Street Global Advisors as of June 30, 2018. The growth of emerging markets over the past several decades can be traced to broad themes that have evolved substantially over time: Emerging-markets Growth Theme Start date End date Annualized Return (%) Cumulative Return (%) Developed-markets offshoring January 29, 1988 July 31, 1997 21.65 554.15 Rebound after Russian default August 31, 1998 March 31, 2000 57.79 113.86 Commodities March 31, 2003 October 31, 2007 44.61 459.18 Debt February 27, 2009 March 31, 2011 51.70 146.67 Earnings Growth (as measured by earnings per share) February 29, 2016 December 29, 2017 29.71 64.64 Source: State Street Global Advisors. State Street Global Advisors 3 Searching for Alpha Consistency in Emerging Market Equities Offshoring from developed markets spurred the initial strong and consistent across the category as a whole; wave growth in these markets in the late 1980s and equity returns in emerging markets have also been early 1990s. Most recently earnings growth fueled by consistently strong compared with the equity market growing consumer consumption has been the most as a whole in recent decades (see Figure 2). We believe prominent theme in emerging markets. Although investors should expect this theme to continue in a few emerging economies are currently teetering the future. close to a recession, earnings growth has remained Figure 2: Equity Returns in Emerging Markets Have Been Consistently Strong Compared with the Market as a Whole in Recent Decades Cumulative index returns for the MSCI Emerging Markets and MSCI World indices Cumulative Returns (%) 3,000 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0 Mar Dec Oct Aug May Mar Jan Nov Sep 1988 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2014 2018 — SI rl — SI Source: FactSet; as of June 30, 2018. Returns reported in USD. State Street Global Advisors 4 Searching for Alpha Consistency in Emerging Market Equities THE EVOLUTION OF THE EMERGING-MARKET OPPORTUNITY SET To understand the dynamics currently playing out Country Trends in emerging markets, it’s important to consider the At the index’s inception nearly 30 years ago, Malaysia historical economic performance of the countries firmly ranked at the top of index with the highest that constitute the overall marketplace. Over level of market capitalization in seven out of the nine the years, opportunities in emerging markets subsequent years leading up to the Asian Financial have shifted dramatically as a direct result of the Crisis. During the onset of the Asian Financial Crisis, performance of underlying country economies. however, Malaysia observed a vast devaluation in The MSCI Emerging Market index can be used as a the ringgit that led to currency controls and a ban on proxy to illustrate the major changes in the emerging- foreigners’ trading in its securities. These currency and markets opportunity set since the inception of the capital controls abruptly ended Malaysia’s reign atop index in 1988 (See Figure 3). Figure 3: In Recent Years, Asian Equities, Led by China, Have Come to Dominate the MSCI Emerging Markets Index by Weighted Representation MSCI Emerging Markets Index — Shift in weighted representation by country 1988 1997 2007 2017 Inception of the MSCI Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, China leads the index in China is firmly established as the Emerging Markets Index; Malaysia goes from the top to the representation for the first time. leader in representation. The top five Malaysia firmly leads in bottom of company representation; countries — all Asian — make up the company representation. Latin American countries emerge largest percentage of the index since as leaders. the Asian Financial crisis. 10 Countries 27 Countries 24 Countries 24 Countries Largest Country Weights (%) Largest Country Weights (%) Largest Country Weights (%) Largest Country Weights (%) Malaysia 29.5 Brazil 16.6 China 15.9 China 29.7 Brazil 25.5 Mexico 13.2 Korea 14.3 Korea 15.4 Mexico 10.0 South Africa 10.3 Brazil 13.4 Taiwan 11.3 Thailand 9.9 Taiwan 9.3 Russia 10.1 India 8.8 Chile 7.8 India 6.5 Taiwan 9.9 South Africa 7.1 Top 5 Total 82.7 Top 5 Total 55.9 Top 5 Total 63.6 Top 5 Total 72.3 Source: MSCI, FactSet, State Street Global Advisors. As of December 31, 2017. State Street Global Advisors 5 Searching for Alpha Consistency in Emerging Market Equities the emerging markets landscape. Malaysia’s equity A large part of the evolution has been driven by markets observed a loss of 69% in 1997; it was removed demographic change. Over the past 10 years, the rising from the index in 1998. consumer class in emerging countries underpinned the shift from the energy and materials sector to Next a Latin-American led narrative emerged, with the technology and consumer discretionary sectors. Brazil and Mexico making up nearly a third of the Deepening bifurcation in population growth trends weight in the index by 1998. At that time, China between developed and emerging markets promises to made up less than 1% of the overall index. Since accelerate that trend. As the working-age population then, Asia has emerged as the dominant force among in less-developed countries increasingly outstrips that emerging markets — and China is the undisputed of developed markets, consumer-driven growth will leader in the region, with twice the weight in the increasingly shift to emerging markets. MSCI Emerging Markets Index compared to the nearest runner-up, Korea. Figure 4: Commodities Have Given Way to the Technology and Consumer Discretionary Sectors in Emerging Markets Sector Trends Evolution in sectors in MSCI Emerging Markets Index, by sector weight At the sector level, the opportunity set in emerging- markets sectors has meaningfully expanded in Index Weight (%) 30 27.7 recent years. Historically, emerging markets have been known for their commodity-driven industries, 25 18.0 reflected in the heavy energy- and materials- 20 14.7 sector weights in the index in 2007. In recent years, 15 10.1 10.2 however, the information technology and consumer 10 6.8 7.4 discretionary have come to the fore in emerging 4.9 5 markets, as evidenced by sector weighting in the 0 Energy Materials Technology Consumer MSCI Emerging Markets Index. (See Figure 4).