Comparing Russian and Brazilian bonds shows a possible pricing anomaly that could favor bond funds with heavy Russia exposure.
“The fact that Russian five-year, dollar-denominated bonds yield 4.1 percent, compared to 2.7 percent for Brazilian ones, is a signal to buy underpriced Russian debt while the weight of political guesswork is pulling it down,” writes Bershidsky.
The Market Vectors Emerging Markets Aggregate Bond ETF (NYSEArca: EMAG) has an 8.4% weight to Russian bonds, making Russia the ETF’s third-largest country weight. The majority EMAG’s Russian issues are dollar-denominated, though some are ruble-denominated.
EMAG sports a 30-day SEC yield of 4.63% and a modified adjusted duration of 5.1 years. The ETF is up 2.3% over the past 90 days. [Emerging Markets Bond ETFs Perk Up]
iShares J.P. Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF
Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of EMB.