At a media roundtable event in London this month, Andrew Ness portfolio manager of Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust, explored investment opportunities in emerging markets and the outlook for emerging market tech stocks.

Andrew Ness (pictured), portfolio manager of London-listed Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust (TEMIT), continues to see investment opportunities in Northern Asia tech stocks, despite market volatility.

“I look at the next 12 months with confidence,” Ness said at the media roundtable in London. “We still like South Korea and have been invested in SK Hynix since February 2024, the world’s second largest maker of memory chips and supplier of semiconductors. We have also held Samsung Electronics for a long time while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is TEMIT’s largest holding.”

TSMC, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix supply tech giant Nvidea with key components. Global AI and tech stocks fell on the news that Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, resigned last week after a suspected Chinese spying scandal involving him was revealed. However, Patricia Ribeiro, co-chief investment officer of global growth equity at American Century Investments, remained positive last week about the outlook for tech-driven emerging markets in an interview with this news service.

Michael Feldman, portfolio manager at ClearBridge Investments, a subsidiary of California-based investment manager Franklin Templeton, also believes that the long-term AI story remains intact. 

“Forty per cent of TEMIT’s portfolio is exposed to AI and tech,” Ness continued. “We have kept an overweight position in AI and tech. I think we are still just scratching the surface of AI and tokenisation." 

However, with over 50 per cent of the portfolio being exposed to non-tech sectors, Ness stressed the need to have a diversified portfolio. “We like emerging market banks, in particular,” he said.

Ness recently increased his exposure to China from an underweight to slightly overweight position, remaining heavily exposed to the country. In particular, he has added to Chinese manufacturing multinational BYD, whose subsidiaries include BYD Auto and BYD Electronics, which produce automotive components and electric vehicle batteries. Chinese companies have taken the lead in the renewable energy trend, producing more than 80 per cent of all solar photovoltaic panels, half of the world’s leading electric vehicles and a third of its wind power, he said.

“We also have a large tilt towards Brazil. There are still bargains to be found there,” Ness said. “We took some money off the table after the first round of elections and put some money back into banks after the second round.” The first round took place on 4 October and the second round on 25 October, resulting in the re-election of President Lula da Silva who held 52 per cent of the votes.

TEMIT’s top 10 holdings include TSMC and Taiwan’s semiconductor and tech firms Mediatek and Hon Hai Precision Industry. They also include South Korea’s tech firms SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics. Other holdings are China’s consumer discretionary firm Prosus, India’s ICICI bank, China’s Merchants Bank and Mexican bank Grupo Financiero Banorte.

Eighty five per cent of the fund is invested in Asia and 10 per cent in Latin America.

TEMIT, which was highly exposed to the AI supply chain at the start of the year, reported strong financial results in the year ending March 2026, with a net asset value (NAV) total return of +41.3 per cent and a share price total return of +48.6 per cent. These returns were well ahead of the MSCI EM Index.

The trust aims to provide long-term capital appreciation through investment in companies in emerging markets or companies which earn a significant amount of their revenues in emerging markets but are domiciled in, or listed on, stock exchanges in developed countries.

Similarly, a number of wealth managers such as Paris-based Comgest, Carmignac, Indosuez Wealth Management remain constructive on emerging markets which have been outperforming developed ones, despite recent volatility.