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4 Funds Making Big Emerging-Markets Bets

Two funds sold and two funds bought developing-world stocks during the region's bear market.

A version of this article was published in the July 2016 issue of Morningstar FundInvestor. Download a complimentary copy of FundInvestor here.

The recent emerging-markets bear market has left its imprint, at least in the short term, on some funds. Between the bear market's April 28, 2015, peak and its Jan. 21, 2016, trough, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index shed 34.1% of its value, with Brazil and China leading the race to the bottom. While their reasons for selling differed, two funds substantially cut their developing-markets footprints during that time and still got hammered. Two others had the temerity to buy in bulk, though only one benefited from the subsequent rebound through July 2016.

At the start of second-quarter 2015,

Between June and December 2015,

Over the past year through March 2016, Bronze-rated

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About the Author

Alec Lucas

Director of Manager Research
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Alec Lucas is director of manager research, active funds research, for Morningstar Research Services LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. He is a voting member of the Morningstar Medalist Ratings Committee for U.S. and international fixed-income strategies, covers fixed-income strategies from asset managers such as Baird and American Funds.

Lucas is also active in parent research. He is a voting member of the U.S. parent ratings committee and previously served as the lead analyst for Franklin Templeton, Capital Group, and Vanguard, among other firms.

Lucas was a strategist on Morningstar's equity strategies team prior to assuming his current role in June 2022. He covered equity strategies from asset managers such as Primecap and American Funds and received the 2019 Citywire Professional Buyer Rising Star Award.

Before joining Morningstar in 2013, Lucas worked as a minister as well as a professor for Loyola University Chicago, among other institutions. From 2010 to 2011, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Heidelberg.

Lucas holds bachelor's degrees in philosophy and classics from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he graduated summa cum laude and with departmental honors, and a Master of Divinity, summa cum laude, from Trinity International University. He also holds a doctorate in theology, with distinction, from Loyola University Chicago and has published several articles and one book within that field.

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