Russell Investments has rolled out what it calls a “new broad emerging markets fund” which is benchmarked against an index that has delivered a return of more than 12 per cent since the start of this year.

The Emerging Markets Extended Opportunities fund comprises seven third-party investment managers combining global, cap-specific, regional, and country-specific strategies, together with direct investment portfolio managed by Russell. The fund is benchmarked against the Russell Emerging Extended Index Net.

At launch, there is an annual management charge of 1.3 per cent.

“There has been a great deal of change in the world of emerging markets investment over the last few years and clients are looking to further diversify portfolios into less efficient segments of the asset class. This fund deliberately targets these opportunities through specialist managers with the aim to enhance return expectations,” said Russell portfolio manager Scott Crawshaw.

For a comparison, the MSCI World Index of developed countries’ equities has declined by 0.9 per cent (source: MSCI Barra, data to 5 June).