One of the top inflows leaders this week is an ETF that focuses on Emerging Markets Bonds, PowerShares Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt (NYSEArca: PCY).
The fund has attracted more than $400 million in recent sessions and now holds approximately $2.7 billion in overall assets under management. The objective of PCY is to track the DB Emerging Markets USD Liquid Balanced Index, which is composed of emerging markets U.S. dollar denominated government bonds that are issued by emerging market economies (currently 22 countries are in this universe).
The selection criteria for particular bonds is something that is proprietary to PowerShares, and the overall portfolio is re-balanced quarterly. Currently, top holdings are issues from countries including Romania (4.22% of the index), Pakistan (3.37%), Korea Republic (2.07%), and Vietnam (3.02%). Other countries including the likes of Turkey, Peru, the Russian Federation, and others are represented at one time of another within this product, and it largely creates a “fresh” picture of what Emerging Markets economies and investing is all about. [Finding the Best ETFs for Emerging Market Bonds]
Oftentimes in the industry, the investor or portfolio manager views Emerging Markets as nothing more than the “BRICs,” which over time, is generally losing its relevance as an acronym to describe EM investing. The “BRICs” acronym points to Brazil, Russia, India, and China, but the term itself is beginning to “date” itself over time.
With the face of Emerging Market investing changing swiftly thanks to the broad innovation of many very focused segments of the EM space via ETFs, economies such as Turkey, Vietnam, Romania, and countless others are now “investable” in terms of being available to the public via ETF strategies.
PCY currently offers an SEC 30 Day Yield of 4.20%, and the performance has been rather impressive too lately, with the ETF hitting a new multi-year high yesterday. Year to date, the fund has rallied 13.78%, and since inception back in 2007, PCY is up 19.73% so clearly a meaningful portion of this overall performance over time has occurred in 2012. Recent heavier trading volumes in the product and the inflows we have noted seem to point that at least one large institutional investor believes the price run in the EM bond space still has potential legs.
PowerShares Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt
For more information on Street One ETF research and ETF trade execution/liquidity services, contact Paul Weisbruch at pweisbruch@streetonefinancial.com.