Asian emerging markets buck US falls

By Jean de Bolle, head of the Asian and global emerging markets team at Martin Currie Asia's emerging markets performed strongly at the end of 2001 and into 2002. Despite succumbing to losses recently ' contagion from the sharp falls in the US market and from investors' increased aversion to risk ' these markets have outperformed year to date. In the six months to 31 July, the MSCI Asia emerging markets free index fell by 17.5%. That compares to a fall of 21.9% in the MSCI AC World index. The cyclical argument for emerging markets is well rehearsed: in the early stage of ...