Active investments in emerging markets offer long-term growth
Best returns will be found in the financial-services sector and in companies that increase their market share at the expense of weaker players
Investment opportunities are created when economies modernise, increase in size and see a step-change in financial sophistication. Just look at China and India. Both were poorly managed by their respective governments until the early 1980s and 1990s and it is no coincidence that a loosening of regulation and an opening up of domestic markets to capital investment and competitive forces coincided with a significant increase in growth rates in these countries. Shanghai’s stock exchange, for example, was re-established in late 1990 after a 41-year closure. From having no listed companies 30 years ago, the market capitalisation of Chinese stocks today exceeds $10-trillion. India’s market capitalisation has increased from $280bn in 2003 to $2.5-trillion in 2018, a nine-fold increase in 15 years. The table, drawn from the World Federation of Exchanges database, shows how the market capitalisation (in US dollars) has changed for the listed universe of several countries over the past 14 ...
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