Interest in the funds could have been piqued by possible signs of a global economic turnaround.
Emerging markets are attracting the attention of more and more Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) investors, new figures revealed today.
According to new statistics from iShares, currently a division of Barclays, emerging markets inflows for ETFs hit £284 million in March and April. These inflows, 84 percent of the 2009 total, suggest a renewed appetite for risk among investors - as emerging markets are generally more volatile than their equivalents in the UK.
ETFs, as their name suggests, are a type of fund that are bought and sold by investors on an exchange. Generally, they function as "index trackers", rising and falling in value with the market value of an exchange, or bonds or commodities - for example, by far the most popular UK ETF tracks the FTSE 100.
Recent reports suggesting that the global economic downturn might be slowing appears to have increased interest in the emerging markets ETFs. Exchanges in developing economies have been hit just as hard by the downturn as those in the UK - at one point last year, global stock markets had lost an overall 50 percent of their value from 2007.
Andrea Morresi, head of sales for iShares in Europe, commented: "Whilst inflows into fixed income products have continued there are indications that some investors are rediscovering an appetite for risk and looking for opportunities outside of the developed markets. iShares' range of emerging markets ETFs offers investors effective and cost-efficient vehicles to gain exposure to emerging market equities and bonds."
