TEMIT's Sehgal and Ness: Covid-19 vaccine optimism boosts investor confidence

Emerging markets overall felt a dose of optimism in August amid hopes for a Covid-19 vaccine, continued easy monetary policy globally and improving economic data pointing toward recovery. Chetan Sehgal, lead portfolio manager and Andrew Ness, portfolio manager, Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust (TEMIT) break down the key trends, news, and events, and share their latest market outlook.

Three trends that underly stronger performance in August: 1 A better macro environment because countries are saving more lives from COVID-19 As witnessed in several countries globally, the daily number of COVID-19 cases in India started to increase in late August as the country continued to ease quarantine restrictions and economic activity began to gradually normalize. A silver lining is that these countries — including India — have not seen a corresponding jump in mortalities, reflecting improved treatments and wider testing revealing asymptomatic cases. While this may raise uncertai...