Emerging-Market Investors Attracted Most by Dividends

Investors pouring record amounts of money into stocks of the fastest-growing economies are favoring shares typically bought by the most conservative money managers.

Equities with the highest dividends in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index advanced 25 percent this year, beating companies with the best earnings expansion by 12 percentage points, the most since 2003, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Inversiones Aguas Metropolitanas SA, the Chilean water utility with an 8 percent yield, returned 32 percent since December and Kangwon Land Inc., the South Korean casino operator that’s lifted payouts by 30 percent in the past year, rose 54 percent.