Economics
Top Returns Don't Make Russia's Bonds Any Less ‘Unanalyzable’
- Ruble bonds top EM peers with returns of almost 8% this year
- But U.S. sanctions risk keeps Eaton Vance, Manulife cautious
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The largest ruble-debt auction on record, almost half a trillion dollars in reserves, and the best local-bond returns in emerging markets. All facts about Russia that Matthew Murphy says play second fiddle to the risk of sanctions.
The world’s biggest energy exporter is “fairly unanalyzable” with the threat of a U.S. ban on new sovereign bonds in play, according to Murphy, a Boston-based portfolio manager at Eaton Vance, which has $493 billion under management. Its local-currency bond fund for emerging markets outperformed 91 percent of peers in the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.