Emerging markets gains 'set to level off'

Emerging markets will soon level off after the mega gains of the last few months, City of London Investment Group predicted today.

The fund manager, which focuses on natural resources - betting on the growing appetites of developing economies for raw materials - reckons that investors will pause to take stock after the benchmark emerging markets index rallied by 90% since October last year.

"Our asset class should now take a breather for quite some time," chief executive Barry Olliff said. "The index will have increased in value too far too fast and there will be some time taken for reflection prior to any further significant advance."

Chairman Andrew Davison added that the extreme volatility of the last 12 months should be behind the markets: "We anticipate that the very pronounced troughs and peaks of the last year will be moderated."

It came as the group reported an almost halving in pre-tax profits to £5.4 million for the year to the end of May.

Funds under management fell by 26% to $3.5 billion (£2.1 billion), compared with a 36% drop in the benchmark emerging markets index.

The final dividend payout is cut to 10p from 13.5p last year.