Mobius’ less-than-enthusiastic view of developing world equities was revealed Thursday, the same day BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), the world’s largest asset manager, said equity-based emerging markets ETFs lost $10 billion in assets last month. [Forgettable January for ETFs as $10B Lost]
Mobius remains bullish on frontier markets and has been adding to positions in Kenya and Nigeria, among others, according to Bloomberg. The iShares MSCI Frontier 100 ETF (NYSEArca: FM) is up 1.2% this year compared to an almost 8% loss for the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: EEM). Nigeria, Africa’s second-largest economy, and Kenya combine for almost 17% of FM’s weight.
iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF
Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of EEM.