Recently, Brazil was the fund's largest single-country holding (10.6%), and Russia was the seventh-largest holding (5.3%). Booth likes Brazil's diversified economy, stable inflation and attractive local currency. Recently, some of this local Brazilian paper was yielding between 10% and 11%.
And despite Russia's financial problems during the past year, he sees glimmers of hope--especially if commodities maintain strength.
Last year drummed home the point that BRICs--and emerging markets as a whole--aren't for the faint of heart. "With BRICs, it's always a case of high risk and high reward," says Uri Landesman from ING. "Always."