For most of the past 15 years, China was the darling of emerging market investors as its demand for commodities lifted the fortunes of countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. But now, as China nurses a hangover from its debt-fuelled boom, fund managers are increasingly shunning it.
“My way of describing our portfolio is to call it the post-China-world portfolio,” says Ruchir Sharma, chief global strategist and head of the emerging markets equity team at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. “The whole positioning is that China’s dream run is over and you have to look for investments that are as uncorrelated to China as possible.”
He identifies South Asia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and parts of eastern Europe as relatively attractive emerging markets.