Genesis Emerging Markets marginally underperformed the MSCI Emerging Markets Index over the second half of 2013 as its net asset value fell by 1.4% against a fall of 1.2% for the index. Its discount narrowed however and shareholders saw the a share price return of 1%.
The manager highlights currency weakness as a particular problem over the period. An overweight position in Turkey and an underweight position in South Korea were also unhelpful but the manager’s report mentions a number of stocks that made a positive contribution to returns including 60% gains in the share prices of Chinese holdings Tencent, Baidu and Ctrip.