South African bond rush
It’s been a great year so far for South African bonds. But can it get better?
Ever since Citi announced on April 16 that South African government bonds would join its World Government Bond Index (WGBI), almost 20 billion rand (over $2.5 billion ) in foreign cash has flooded to the local debt markets in Johannesburg, bringing year-to-date inflows to over 37 billion rand. Last year’s total was 48 billion. Michael Grobler, bond analyst at Johannesburg-based brokerage Afrifocus Securities predicts total 2012 inflows at over 60 billion rand, surpassing the previous 56 billion rand record set in 2o1o:
The assumption..is based on the fact that South Africa will have a much larger and diversified investor base following inclusion in the WGBI expanding beyond the EM debt asset class
Currently South African bonds are restricted to emerging local bond indices. The most-widely used, JPMorgan’s GBI-EM, has less than $200 billion benchmarked to it and South Africa’s weighting is 10 percent. But the WGBI is a different matter altogether — around $2 trillion is estimated to track this index which currently includes just 22 countries, only three of them emerging markets. An expected 0.44 percent weighting for South Africa implies inflows of $5-$9 billion, analysts estimate.
Some of that cash has already come. How much more could roll in this year? Optimists point to Mexico – foreign ownership of the local debt market there rose to 31 percent from 24 percent over 2010, the year the country joined the WGBI, with $11 billion flowing in. But the picture in South Africa is in fact not that rosy. Inflows will undoubtedly pick up, benefiting both bonds and the rand but many reckon positioning in South African bonds is already pretty crowded – about a third of the market is in foreign hands already, analysts at Morgan Stanley reckon. Worse, the country faces a possible credit ratings downgrade this year (all three rating agencies have cut its ratings outlook to negative in recent months).
Kieran Curtis, a fund manager at Aviva Investors upped his holdings of South African local bonds after the WGBI news but is reluctant to go overweight, betting the market will benefit less than Mexico did two years ago. He cites two reasons — first South Africa’s budget deficit has been creeping higher and it follows that debt issuance will too. Second, the external backdrop is less supportive today than two years ago when the Fed was in full money-printing mode:
I wouldnt say I detect a very strong commitment in South Africa to restoring the budget to balance and those debt numbers can rise quickly when you have a 5-6 percent deficit. Also Mexico’s inclusion came at a time when U.S. Treasury yields were falling fairly quickly but now, with Treasury yields rising we may not get the same support for South Africa.
Big Fish, Small Pond?
It’s the scenario that Bank of England economist Andrew Haldane last year termed the Big Fish Small Pond problem — the prospect of rising global investor allocations swamping the relatively small emerging markets asset class.
But as of now, the picture is better described as a Small Fish in a Big Pond, Morgan Stanley says in a recent study, because emerging markets still receive a tiny share of asset allocations from the giant investment funds in the developed world.
These currently stand at under 10% of diversified portfolios from G4 countries even though emerging markets make up almost a fifth of the market capitalisation of world equity and debt capital markets. In the case of Japan, just 4% of cross-border investments are in emerging markets, MS estimates.
But change is on its way. MS surveys show most classes of global institutional investors intend to boost allocations to emerging markets, including the more conservative investor groups – Japan’s $1.3 trillion government pension insurance fund, for instance, plans to start buying emerging equities later this year. MS analysts calculate allocations to emerging markets could rise 3.5% over the next five years.
That may not sound like much until one realises the true scale of the global pool of investable institutional assets and compares them with current market cap values in developing countries . These assets currently exceed $212 trillion, meaning a 3.5 % allocation increase will bring over $2 trillion into emerging markets. That’s over half the capitalisation of EM equity market, more than 80% of bond markets and a third of the combined market cap of both sectors.
Take a look at some more numbers:
– Based on current market values, a 1% increase in allocation to EM by pension and insurance funds represents a $524 billion flow to EM assets.
All in the price in China?
It’s been a while since Chinese stocks earned investors fat profits. Last year the Shanghai market lost 22 percent and the compounded return on equity investments there since 1993 is minus 3 percent. This year too China has underwhelmed, rising less than 3 percent so far. Broader emerging equities on the other hand have just concluded their best first quarter since 1992, with gains of over 13 percent.
Given all that, bears remain a surprisingly rare breed in China. A Bank of America/Merrill Lynch’s monthly survey found it was fund managers’ biggest emerging markets overweight in March and that has been the case for some months now. Clearly, hope dies last.
Driving many of these allocations is valuation. China’s equity market has always tended to trade at a premium to emerging markets but in recent months it has swung into a discount, trading at 9.2 times forward earnings or 10 percent below broader emerging markets. MSCI’s China index is also trading almost 25 percent below its own long-term average, according to this graphic from my colleague Scott Barber (@scottybarber):
There are reasons for the cheapness of course. The economy is slowing and looks on track for its weakest quarter since 2009. Recent corporate earnings have disappointed and there are worries over local government debt and bad loans at banks. The property sector remains a worry and it is unclear if the PBOC will ease monetary policy. But many reckon the problems are in the price.
JPMorgan Asset Management for instance has changed its historic bias against Chinese stocks in its EM fund. China is now the fund’s biggest overweight, more than 5 percent above the MSCI benchmark. Client portfolio manager Emily Whiting expects the market to rebound strongly once investors start unwinding their doomsday bets:
Historically China has been an underweight for us as we always felt the valuations too rich against the broader emerging markets opportunity set.. Now it is our largest overweight country position, we feel the market has priced in too much bad news and it’s created buying opportunities…. it’s a great environment for stock pickers.
Yield-hungry tilt to equity from credit
For income-focused investors, the choice between stocks and corporate bonds has been a no-brainer in recent years. In a volatile world, corporate debt tends to be less sensitive to market gyrations and also has offered better yields – last year non-financial European corporate bonds provided a yield pickup of 73 basis points above stocks, Morgan Stanley calculates.
But, long a fan of credit over equity, MS reckons the picture may now be changing and points out that European equities are offering better yields than credit for the first time in over a decade. (The graphic below compares dividend yields on non-financial euro STOXX index with the IBOXX European non-financial corporate bond index. The former narrowly wins.)
The extra yield available on equities, coupled with perceptions of a more stable macro backdrop, may encourage income-oriented investors back into stocks.
The bank has put together a 10-stock basket with an average 2012 yield of 5.1 pct (vs MSCI Europe’s 3.9 pct). That is around 250 bps higher than corresponding bonds. Check out Britain’s Vodafone – its shares offer a whopping 8.3 percent yield. That’s 600 bps above its 5-year implied credit yield.
That sounds tempting. But there are caveats. The best yield pickup is available in sectors where investors remain underweight — utilities and telecoms. And a positive yield gap is not always a bullish signal for stocks, Morgan Stanley warns. Japanese dividend yields have been above bond yields since 2008.
Another fine excuse for selling stocks
There is no question that the losses on stock markets at the moment are primarily the result of the Greek crisis. A downgrade of a euro zone country’s sovereign debt to junk is enough to make all but insane mainstream investors take a large step away from risk.
But could it also be that the Greek crisis has come at a time when big investors were looking for an excuse to cool down the equity rally? MSCI’s all-country world stock index hit a peak on April 15 that was not only higher than anything seen this year, but also last year as well. Up about 85 percent from its March 2009 lows, in fact.
Partly as a result, there were some signs emerging that suggested a correction would soon be in the works.
– Morgan Stanley noted that one of the indexes it follows had been up at least 50 percent year-on-year eight times in March. History showed that on 77 percent of such occasions that equity markets had subsequently fallen 4 percent.
– Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s April fund manager survey saw cash holdings had dropped to 3.5 percent of assets. On four out of five occasions that that has happened before, BofA said, equities declined by 7 percent in the following 4-5 weeks.
Now comes a new sign. State Street’s investor confidence index dropped below 100 this month, the first time it was in risk averse territory for more than a year. It was only a small drop, but significantly it was the first time since March 2009 that it has been below 100.
So, yes, Greece is pummeling markets and putting the frights into in global investors. But the market could well have been ripe for it anyway.
Morgan Stanley bales out
Say this for Morgan Stanley — it is not afraid to buck the trend. With world stocks up more than five percent in the few days that have been April trading and up 24 percent since hitting a low on March 9, the bank has decided bale out. In its latest strategy report, MS says it is moving 5 percent out of stocks to neutral. It likes cash.
This puts Morgan Stanley in the camp that sees the current stock rally as just part of a bear market. It says it is looking at fundamentals to get better before it will decide that trouble is past.
“The three fundamentals we look at are : 1) earnings; 2) U.S. housing; and 3) banks’ balance sheets”, it says.
Interestingly, MS also admits it could be wrong. For one thing, it could be baling out too early with the rally continuing for “positioning and ‘second derivative’ reasons.
More significantly: ”If policy action is successful in reparing banks’ balance sheets and putting a floor under house prices, the next bull market may already have started”.
So back to you, again
(Reuters photo: Brendan McDermid)
Yeah, why should they be afraid. The feds will use taxpayers money again if they fail … as it always goes too big to let it fail and all.
