As investors return to the markets with a more risk-on attitude, emerging market-related ETFs have been a popular play so far in the new year.
For example, the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: IEMG), the second largest emerging market-related ETF, was the second most popular ETF play so far in 2019, attracting close to $2.5 billion in net inflows year-to-date, according to XTF data.
The emerging market ETF play has increased 6.1% this year as more investors looked to cheaper global opportunities after the global pullback, with one investor executing a couple of massive block trades last week, which helped push assets up by $5 billion to an all-time high of $54.3 billion, according to Bloomberg data.
Furthermore, it is not just emerging market stocks that are attracting more attention. Fixed-income investors are also looking into developing market debt as a bargain play and as a way to generate more attractive yields in the continued low-yield environment.