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Capital IdeasTM

Investment insights from Capital Group

Categories
Emerging Markets
EMD: A credible long-term asset allocation candidate
Jeremy J.W. Cunningham
Investment Director
Raza Jaffrey
Risk and Quantitative Solutions Manager

Using cluster analysis and regression techniques, this paper highlights the importance of active management and bottom-up fundamental research in effectively navigating the multifaceted emerging market debt (EMD) landscape.


Key insights include:


Idiosyncrasies in EMD: Returns for both local and hard currency sovereign markets vary significantly across EM countries. What drives these differences? One might expect bonds from the same region or with similar credit ratings to move in sync, either in the same direction or with comparable magnitudes. While this can sometimes be true, there are numerous idiosyncrasies, which means this is often not the case.


Cluster analysis: The purpose of the analysis is to reveal the relationships between sovereign bond returns issued by different countries, which might not be immediately obvious when just looking at regional or rating splits.


In the local currency bond space, although the Latin American countries are generally clustered together, Chile is closer to Brazil than to Peru. Mexico, meanwhile, has a distinct return pattern compared to the other Latin American countries.


In the hard currency space, there appeared to be less differentiation. Combining the local and hard currency EM sovereign cluster analysis revealed that a country’s local currency sovereign bond returns do not necessarily move together with its hard currency sovereign bond returns.


Regression analysis: The paper identifies key return drivers for local and hard currency sovereign bonds. The analysis revealed that the factors driving returns differed not only between local and hard currency bonds but also varied significantly across different countries, highlighting the importance of tailored research and analysis.



Jeremy J.W. Cunningham is an investment director at Capital Group. He has 37 years of industry experience and has been with Capital Group for eight years. Prior to joining Capital, Jeremy worked as head of EMEA fixed income business development at Alliance Bernstein. Before that he was head of product management at Schroders. Earlier in his career he was a fixed income portfolio manager at INVESCO, J.P. Morgan Fleming and Merrill Lynch. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation. Jeremy is based in London.

Raza Jaffrey is a risk and quantitative solutions manager at Capital Group. He has 17 years of investment industry experience and has been with Capital Group for eight years. Prior to joining Capital, Raza worked as a risk manager at Investec Asset Management. Before that, he was a quantitative risk manager at FFTW. He holds a PhD in economics, and a master’s degree in financial economics, from Brunel University London. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Warwick. Raza is based in London. 


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