Advance Eastern Europe UCITS Ranks #1 by Return in 2019

In 2019 Karoll Capital’s mutual fund - Advance Eastern Europe is the best performing fund in Bulgaria with a return of +29.9%. Earlier, Advance Invest UCITS - Karoll’s Bulgaria & Romania stock picking strategy - was awarded by InvestorBG as the best fund in the emerging markets category. Advance Emerging Europe UCITS finished last year with a gain of +11.3%, solidly outperforming its benchmark MSCI EFM Europe + CIS ex RU.Karoll’s global strategy – Advance Global Trends had a very strong year too, adding +17.9%.

 The positive development of the Russian market -both equities and local currency -was the key driver behind the strong performance of Advance Eastern Europe last year. With an average weight of 48%in the fund's portfolio, Russian equities contributed to 2/3 of the realized gain. The fund generated about half of its return from exposure to the energy sector and the mining industry, according to Karoll Capital’s experts.

Even after this strong growth in 2019, the Central & Eastern Europe region remains the cheapest globally, trading at a deep discount to other emerging markets. Given the relaunch of monetary stimulus by major central banks, Karoll expects some of this additional liquidity in the global financial system to flow into riskier assets. As trade wars subside and positive sentiment returns to emerging markets, Central & Eastern Europe stands to gain by attracting portfolio investments.