Thompson increased the fund’s Chinese industrial exposure in October by purchasing cement producer Anhui Conch and railway equipment maker Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric.
The manager also lifted industrial exposure in Latin America, particularly that linked to the US economy, with the acquisition of purchase of Mexican cement producer Cemex.
Industrial stocks have a 9.28% position in the fund, overweight the 6.63% found in the MSCI Emerging Markets benchmark. Mexico is the fund’s largest geographical overweight, while it has a smaller overweight to China.
Thompson also added two Turkish consumer names – discount store chain BIM and coke bottler Coca Cola Icecek – to the portfolio. The fund is overweight both the consumer staples and consumer discretionary sectors.
Industrial and consumer names aided the fund’s performance in October, when it outperformed the benchmark. The fund is ranked second quartile over one, three and five years.
These additions were funded by the sale of Garanti Bank in Turkey. The manager said the holding “has been a strong performer but now looks fully-priced”.
“Economic data this month suggests that economic activity across emerging markets is at least stabilising, however we expect any recovery to be gentle,” Thompson said.
“As such, we continue to focus on mid-cap growth stocks while avoiding global cyclicals, particularly in the materials and energy sectors.”
