Frontier Market Equities Trading At A 5 Percent Premium To EM

Emerging markets (EM) have been repeatedly pummeled by the prospect of tapering this year, but the sudden outflows and inflows of money that can cause problems for EM stocks don’t have the same impact on relatively illiquid frontier markets. Frontier market (FM) has outperformed EM with gains of 19% so far this year, compared to a net loss of 5% (despite a 14% EM Rally since the summer), but FM has gained so much popularity that it now trades at a slight premium to EM even though analysts expect FM to have a weaker 2014.

Frontier markets are protected by illiquidity

“That the frontier markets are smaller and less liquid than the emerging markets is not a coincidence. All...