T. Rowe: Drop in Commodity Prices Won't Sink Frontier Markets

The rise in frontier markets is more structural than cyclical and will not be undone by plummeting oil prices, said Oliver Bell, portfolio manager for the T. Rowe Price Institutional Frontier Markets Equity Fund. Bell added that his favorite frontier markets are Vietnam, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He has been especially bullish on shares of United Bank in Pakistan as the government has been exiting its position. Bell said T. Rowe Price generally buys shares of companies on local exchanges so he prefers to have a macro and currency tailwind at his back. Finally, he said a slowdown in China will also not hurt frontier markets that are not net exporters to China.