Aberdeen Frontier Markets beat its benchmark over the second half of 2016, posting net asset value per share and share price total returns of 3.7% and 6.3%, respectively. This compared to a gain of 3.2% for the MSCI Frontier Markets Net Total Return Index.
The chairman’s statement says managers in Vietnam, Argentina and Kazakhstan performed strongly while individual funds in Romania and Vietnam also contributed to relative performance following a narrowing of their discounts. The manager’s report says VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund the best performer (NAV +10.0%). Strong relative performance was also delivered by the Company’s managers in Argentina (Copernico) and Kazakhstan (Sturgeon). Asset allocation was a detractor during the period, with low levels of exposure to Morocco, where the market rose by 20.1% and Kuwait which posted a 12.9% gain, accounting for much of this. In terms of discount movement, VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund and a core Romanian holding, Fondul Proprietatea, contributed to relative performance as their discounts narrowed in absolute terms by 4.5 and 2.8 percentage points respectively.
AFMC : Aberdeen Frontier Markets outperforms in H2 2016