The $45 billion Johannesburg-based asset management operation of the Standard Bank of South Africa, Stanlib, has launched the Standard South Africa equity fund and the Standard Africa equity fund despite global market turmoil, believing that African markets represent an opportunity for portfolio diversification. Dylan Evans, global investment marketing director, said: “Whilst the MSCI emerging market index has fallen 12.3 per cent since 20 July, the day the global sell-off began, African markets excluding South Africa have risen on average by 1.28 per cent. "Most African nations are now stable, most have reduced their debt to manageable proportions or in many cases eliminated it entirely and most have seen their inflation and interest rates fall to levels which are in line with emerging markets in general. As a result, Africa has been growing faster than the OECD average since 2001 and African equity markets have been outperforming developed market equities. Despite prevalent misconceptions about Africa, an investment in African equities can actually help reduce portfolio volatility.”