Hidden gems: Exploring frontier markets

Frontier markets - those considered too risky, illiquid or small to enter most emerging markets indexes - can offer huge rewards for those investors brave enough to go exploring

Investors' nerves were tested in 2018 as global markets plummeted, with news headlines dominated by the escalating tensions between the US and China. Frontier markets were no exception. The MSCI Frontier Markets index experienced a larger decline than its developed peers, dropping 11.2% versus a fall of 9.2% for MSCI Emerging Markets and 3.2% for the FTSE All World, in sterling terms. The magnitude of this fall was particularly surprising, since frontier markets usually have a low correlation to other global stockmarkets. Frontier markets are developing economies which are considered ...