JPM's Negyal: Russia is one of our favourite regions despite being 'left behind by most EM investors'

Also favouring China

Omar Negyal, lead manager of the £385m JP Morgan Global Emerging Markets Income trust, has highlighted Russia as one of the areas he is finding attractive, with portfolio exposure almost three times that of the fund's MSCI Emerging Markets benchmark.

The manager said he has been overweight to the region for some time now, but has been steadily increasing his position in Russia over the past six months, with the country now representing 9% of the portfolio.  This compares to just 3.7% in Russia for the fund's MSCI Emerging Markets Net index (TR) benchmark.  Improving conditions Negyal said: "Russia is an area often left behind by emerging markets investors. They are more focused on pure growth opportunities, but Russia is a good value opportunity and as an income fund we are focused on companies paying out healthy dividends. "...