“The fund's weight was two and a half percentage points higher than its benchmark, the JPMorgan GBI-Emerging Global Diversified Index. Despite losing 2.67% Thursday, the fund did outperform its bogy, which lost 3.41%,” he added.
Slupecki also noted that Payden’s Russian exposure has grown significantly since early 2019, when it was 7.46%.
“Western Asset Macro Opportunities (LAOSX) is the lone fund outside of the two emerging-markets categories with heavy Russia exposure,” he added.
The fund increased its Russian debt holdings to 8.7%, up from 5.3% in June, 2018, according to Morningstar Direct. “Exposure has reached as high as 10.8% of the portfolio since then,” Slupecki said.