Investing
CAMRADATA’s launches Q2 2018 investment reports to provide insights into performance of Emerging Market Equity and Emerging Market Debt

CAMRADATA, a leading provider of data and analysis for institutional investors, has published its latest investment research reports for Q2 2018 on Emerging Market Equity and Emerging Market Debt – which charts the performance of investments and asset managers.
Over three years’ worth of data from CAMRADATA Live (its online manager research platform) at 30 June 2018 was analysed to produce the reports and some key investments trends emerged for Q2.
In Q2, Emerging Markets suffered steep declines as investors swapped these “riskier” assets for safer ones such as treasuries. Assets in EME declined by $53 billion and in EMD declined by nearly $22 billion compared with the first quarter (largely the result of market losses).
According to Sean Thompson, Managing Director, CAMRADATA, there are several factors behind the falling asset values, including rate rises from US Federal Reserve, which are regarded as significant.
Sean Thompson says, “With yields on ten-year US government bonds now about 3%, investors have more of an incentive to sell their risky emerging market equities and buy safe treasuries. Higher US interest rates also tend to encourage investors to swap emerging market equities for American ones.
“But this could be an over-reaction, as we heard (13 September) at the CAMRADATA Emerging Markets Seminar, where one fund manager noted that in previous hiking cycles, emerging market equities went on to outperform. This is because growth potential favoured these markets – and this is the case now.
“Markets have also become jittery at the thought of more tariffs or retaliatory currency devaluation if the US and China trade war escalates. However, it appears many investors are anticipating a rally in emerging market equities and may consider the current trough as a good opportunity to buy. In fact one leading emerging market researcher described now as being the best entry point for emerging market assets in 16 years due to factors such as the dollar looking unstable, and there being – in his view – solid fundamentals in emerging markets that mean there is a complete absence of contagion risk.”
Thompson added: “The simple fact could be that emerging markets are always casualties of uncertainty. But Turkey and Argentina are not bellwethers for the sector. And nor should investors be overly worried about geo-politics. Fund managers note that emerging markets have survived many geo-political events in the past.”
Other key highlights include:
- Over the last quarter the EME universe saw positive inflows which totalled just over $4.9bn.
- In Q2 2018 just over 10.5% of managers achieved positive returns in the Emerging Market Equity universe. The lowest return produced is -11.57% and the best performing product achieved 12.07%.
- AGF Investments achieved the largest percentage growth in AuM seeing its assets increase by 129.11%, followed by DePrince, Race & Zollo Inc., Barings, TT International and Artemis Investment Management.
Emerging Market Debt
- Over the last quarter the EME universe saw outflows which totalled just over $3.3bn.
- Ashmore Group had the largest asset inflows totalling $1,219m during the quarter, followed by Wellington Management, Logan Circle Partners, Western Asset Management and Franklin Templeton Investments.
- Mirabaud achieved the largest percentage growth, seeing their assets increase by 29.46% during Q2 2018, followed by Western AM, Colchester Global Investors, Logan Circle Partners L.P. and Manulife.
Sean Thompson concluded, “Our investment reports are essential reading for keeping abreast of what is happening in the EME and EMD markets, providing detailed commentary and analysis on how the classes have recently performed, as well as historically over the past three years.’
CAMRADATA has also published separate Q2 2018 reports on Diversified Growth Funds, Global Equity, UK Equity and Multi Sector Fixed Income.
For more information or to receive any of the reports, please contact: [email protected]
Investing
Bitcoin slumps 10% as pullback from record continues

LONDON (Reuters) – Bitcoin slumped 10% on Thursday to a 10-day low of $31,977 as the world’s most popular cryptocurrency continued to retreat from the $42,000 record high hit on Jan. 8.
The pullback came amid growing concerns that bitcoin is one of a number of financial bubbles threatening the overall stability of global markets.
Fears that U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration could attempt to regulate cryptocurrencies have also weighed, traders said.
(Reporting by Julien Ponthus; editing by Tom Wilson)
Investing
A lot of hot air? Investors snap up hydrogen stocks in green frenzy

By Elizabeth Howcroft and Thyagaraju Adinarayan
LONDON (Reuters) – An unprecedented rally in “green” hydrogen stocks looks set to extend as investors flock to companies which promise to produce the gas without using fossil fuels, expecting the technology to scale up over the next 10 years to justify rocketing valuations.
Hydrogen is the universe’s most abundant element. It is mostly extracted from fossil fuels, emitting carbon dioxide in the process. “Green” or clean hydrogen requires using electrolysis to split water into its components of hydrogen and oxygen and doing so cheaply is often described as the holy grail of green energy transition.
Share prices of companies in the industry have soared more than 500% in the past year, driven by the rising adoption of zero-emission vehicles, a deadline set by many countries to go carbon-free by 2050 and lately U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s support for clean energy.
Plug Power, Ceres Power and Fuelcell Energy, which make hydrogen fuel cell systems that power devices ranging from warehouse machines to cars, are leading that charge, jumping 400% to 1,600% in the last year.
“Hot money is flowing towards renewables and clean energy, and there’s been a clear re-rating of valuations in the sector,” said Emmanuel Cau, head of European equity strategy at Barclays.
While a lot of focus has been on hydrogen’s role in the automotive sector, its usage is growing far beyond that.
The European Union plans to scale up renewable hydrogen projects across polluting sectors ranging from chemicals to steel with cumulative investments in renewable hydrogen in the region seen reaching up to 470 billion euros ($570 billion) by 2050, the region’s commission said.
That has fuelled the stocks of electrolyser makers Norway’s Nel and UK’s ITM Power.
“The momentum just keeps going really with this theme,” Ashim Paun, HSBC’s global co-head of climate change and ESG research said on a webinar.
ZeroAvia, a hydrogen plane startup, last month secured $37.7 million in new cash via a funding round led by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and from the British government to support its bid to develop zero-emission aircraft.
The frenzy in hydrogen-related stocks has led to some concerns about a bubble, with companies trading at extreme prices based on expectations that their revenue will surge in future, despite worries about possible headwinds for the sector.
Widespread adoption of hydrogen as a fuel for cars is far from a given.
Toyota launched a new hydrogen fuel cell car in December, but it has largely failed to win customers over to the technology amid concerns about a lack of fuelling stations, resale values and the risk of hydrogen explosions.
The momentum behind electric vehicles may be another headwind, said Jonathan Bell, chief investment officer at Stanhope Capital.
“The problem with hydrogen is that sometimes when you have two competing systems, it’s not the better technology that wins, it’s the one that gets market share and the network effect first of all,” Bell said.
UK-based ITM Power, which manufactures the electrolysers needed to make green hydrogen, is trading at a massive seven times its 2030 sales, while rival Nel is relatively cheap at three times 2030 sales, according to HSBC’s calculations.
Some investors may avoid the sector altogether, after a similar burst of enthusiasm two decades ago proved short-lived, and much of the latest excitement around green energy is based on Biden’s policy plans, which are yet to be passed into law.
But no bank is ringing the alarm bells, yet.
JP Morgan analysts advised long-term investors in a recent note to take advantage of any pullback in prices and “take an unorthodox approach to valuation for the next several years” – in other words, not worry about a potential bubble.
Sean McLoughlin, HSBC EMEA head of industrials research, said scarcity value in the market, unprecedented fiscal stimulus, low cost of capital and debt and low yields in other asset classes mean the hydrogen market’s valuation may be justified though he cautioned it was at a “potentially fraught level.”
“There’s a lot of capital that is very ESG-focused chasing a select number of companies that offer this kind of pure play exposure to these future energy trends. So there is a risk that this may unwind.”
($1 = 0.8258 euros)
(This story corrects paragraph 2 to show hydrogen is the universe’s most abundant element, not earth’s)
(Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan and Elizabeth Howcroft, additional reporting by Julien Ponthus; editing by Rachel Armstrong and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Investing
BlackRock to add bitcoin as eligible investment to two funds

(Reuters) – BlackRock Inc is adding bitcoin futures as an eligible investment to two funds, a company filing showed, in a move to bring the world of cryptocurrency to its clients.
The world’s largest asset manager said it could use bitcoin derivatives for its funds BlackRock Strategic Income Opportunities and BlackRock Global Allocation Fund Inc.
The funds will invest only in cash-settled bitcoin futures traded on commodity exchanges registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the company said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.
Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink had said at the Council of Foreign Relations in December that bitcoin is seeing big giant moves every day and could possibly evolve into a global market. (https://bit.ly/2XXFHrB)
Earlier this month, Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, hit a record high of $40,000, rallying more than 900% from a low in March and having only just breached $20,000 in mid-December.
A BlackRock spokesperson declined to comment beyond the filings when contacted by Reuters.
(Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar and Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)