Emerging market stock and bond funds fared well in the first quarter, as the Micropal Emerging Markets Composite Index climbed 6.2%. Emerging market equity funds advanced 6.49%, while debt funds rose 3.98%. Eastern Europe equity funds had the best quarterly performance among regional funds, rising 20.95%, while funds for Turkey, averaging a 31.8% gain, were the best performing single country funds, Micropal's data show.
Among individual emerging market funds, the quarter's top-performer was the Korea Small Companies Trust, which soared 121.2% In second place was the Selected Trust Eastern Europe fund of Mercury Asset Management, up 41.5%.