Frontier Stocks Lose in Best Rally Since ’91 as Growth Sl
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The best start to a year for stocks in two decades is leaving the smallest markets behind, a sign of reduced investor confidence in the least-developed economies.
All eight of the world’s worst-performing equity indexes this year are in frontier countries, where the average stock-market value of $30 billion is about 95 percent less than in emerging nations. While the MSCI All-Country World Index jumped 11 percent, gauges in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka sank at least 9 percent as interest rates increased. Nigeria’s stock index fell 1.8 percent after union strikes and attacks by Islamic militants. Frontier-nation stocks trade at the lowest valuations since at least 2008 versus emerging-market shares.