Emerging markets increasingly look appealing to asset managers, according to a recent study.

In its Emerging Markets Investor Sentiment Survey, New York-based Emerging Global Advisors found the outlook toward emerging market equities jumped into positive territory in the second quarter of 2016.

The Emerging Global Advisor Emerging Markets Sentiment score increased by 28 percent, from a neutral 538 in the first quarter of 2016 to a positive 687 in the second quarter. The scores range from 0, the most negative, to 1,000, the most positive.

During the first half of 2016, emerging markets grew 6 percent faster than developed markets, which represents accelerating growth, says Edward Kerschner, vice chairman and chief investment strategist at Emerging Global Advisors.

“For a number of years, emerging markets have been growing faster, but they’ve been doing so at a lesser rate each year,” Kerschner says. “That’s what’s changing. When there’s fundamental growth, there tends to be greater outperformance of emerging markets.”

Kerschner says that while monetary policy has led to historical high valuations in developed market equities, emerging market equities are closer to their historical average. Emerging market companies were also less impacted by June’s surprise Brexit vote, and have sustainable debt levels.

Investors interested in emerging markets should look for regions with the potential for strong consumer growth, says Kerschner.

“The consumer sector is the most exciting opportunity, the story is the growth of the world’s middle class,” he notes. “While the middle class share in the U.S., Europe and Japan is shrinking, it’s growing in China and India.”

In the Investor Sentiment Survey, respondents said they felt positive (47 percent) or neutral (43 percent) when asked about their outlook on emerging markets.

Almost half of the respondents (49 percent) said they expect to stay the course with their emerging market allocations, and another 46 percent said they would attempt to increase their emerging market equity allocation.

“The positive outlook is the most common answer, replacing neutral which has been the most common answer in the past,” said Marc Zeitoun, Emerging Global Advisors chief product and marketing officer, on a Thursday conference call. “Few are thinking about lowering their allocations. It’s like Brexit is a non-event in terms of emerging markets investing.”

Over the past 12 months, 78 percent of the respondents say they have increased or maintained their emerging markets allocation, only 22 percent report reducing their allocations.

Investors are also considering specialized exposure to emerging markets through smart beta, but advisors still favor active management. According to Emerging Global Advisors, nearly half of its respondents (49 percent) have replaced or expect to replace an active manager with a smart-beta ETF, but only 36 percent have done so or would do so with their emerging market allocations.

“In terms of asset classes, institutional investors particularly still believe that emerging markets are best served by asset managers,” Zeitoun said. “Non-U.S. asset classes are the slowest in adopting smart beta, but even that is a stat that is increasing.”

Currently, smart-beta products comprise 9.2 percent of the emerging market ETF universe, according to Emerging Global Advisors.

For its survey, Emerging Global Advisors interviewed 83 asset managers between June 1 and July 7, 2016.