Emerging markets joined in with the general global equities revival last month, with the MSCI Emerging Markets Total Return Index up 2.8 percent. However, Guinness Asset Management’s Emerging Market Equity Income fund was up by 4.2 percent in the same time period.

Latin America reversed the trend seen so far this year by being the best performing region, up 8.7 percent for the month. Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), also performed well, rising 6 percent while Asia, usually the darling of emerging markets performed worst although still in positive territory at 1.8 percent.

At a country level, Russia was the best performing for the month, improving 10.9 percent, Brazil matching its growth rate. Mexico was up 8.8 percent while as said countries in Asia didn’t fare so well with India down by 0.7 percent. Taiwan’s index was also down by 0.4 percent while China improved by 1.6 percent.

Guinness’s fund, managed by Edmund Harris, saw the greatest contributions from its holdings of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), which was up by 24.7 percent and the Brazilian Stock Exchange (B3) which improved by 21.9 percent.

Detractors from performance included Colombian financial institution Banco Davivienda which was down by 7.5 percent, clothing manufacturer China Lilang which dropped by 6 percent and smart phone camera parts supplier Largan Precision, down 5.6 percent.

From a macro perspective geopolitical tensions rose as US-China relations deteriorated. China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak was heavily criticised by President Trump and later in the month, further restrictions on Chinese company Huawei were announced, limiting the company’s access to products incorporating US technology.