Have emerging markets passed the Covid test?

We examine how emerging markets are becoming an increasingly mainstream choice for investors.

Emerging markets illustration

We are now just a little over one year on from the start of the global Covid-19 pandemic and sometimes it seems like one country keeps hogging the investment media headlines – the US stock market and its collection of retail-friendly tech stocks.

But dig around in numbers from the big benchmark index firms such as S&P Dow Jones and another story emerges. If we look at 12-month returns from March 2021, the biggest gains have been from investing in India (up 83%), Taiwan (also 83%) and South Africa (up 79%). The US is by far and away the best developed world market with a return of 60%, but it’s only just a smidgeon ahead of Mexico, its neighbour to the south (up 58%).

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