Stocks traded on emerging market stock exchanges now account for 16% of global equities, according to Standard & Poor’s. However, despite these stocks’ growing weight and in many cases improvements in transparency and corporate governance, investors remain fickle. According to data from Emerging Portfolio Fund Research, a fund flows tracker, investors pulled $15 billion from emerging market stocks between mid-May and mid-September, reducing the year-to-date cumulative inflow to $17 billion.
Emerging markets outperformed developed world equity markets in August, as 18 of the 26 countries in the S&P/Citigroup Emerging Market Index gained during the month. According to S&P, emerging markets gained 2.97% in August compared with 2.66% gains in developed markets.