Allianz GI's Ghosh widens focus of BRIC Stars fund

Kunal Ghosh, the new San Diego based manager of the Allianz BRIC Stars fund, has begun to tilt the portfolio away from its titular focus in favour of smaller emerging markets.

Since taking over the fund from Michael Konstantinov at the start of October, Ghosh has increased the weighting of ex-BRIC countries from 2% to 8% and plans to "significantly increase" exposure again over the coming months. The £327m fund's investment remit permits up to a third of the portfolio to be invested in ex-BRIC countries, and Ghosh feels now is the time to look elsewhere. The BRICs and emerging markets in general have remained out of favour with investors this year, though indices have bounced in recent months: the MSCI Emerging Markets index is up 8.8% in the three months t...