Following global trends, market declines in Latin America were severe in September. Once again the region underperformed other emerging and developed markets, due to increased global risk aversion.Argentina and Brazil were the weakest markets, whereas Mexico and Chile were relative outperformers. Telecoms, financials and consumer staples led the sector performance, while technology, industrials and materials significantly underperformed.Stock selection in materials, industrials and consumer discretionary were the main detractors from the fund's performance in September. In addition, underweighting Chile and stock selection in Mexico were negative factors. However, the fund benefited from stock selection in the energy, utilities and food beverage sectors.
Given the deterioration in the global economy, we reduced the fund's exposure to commodities, resulting in an underweight position in materials. Consumer staples were increased by adding to the fund's food retail exposure, as cost pressures look to be easing next year and margin expansion is expected. In the consumer discretionary sector on the other hand, we continued to reduce the portfolio's real estate exposure.