MSEMX — Emerging Markets Small Cap Portfolio
Data updated: 2021-08-25
MSEMX — Emerging Markets Small Cap Portfolio. Japan Small Cap Blend / Core Equity · $100.93M AUM. Holdings, fees, performance and SEC filings.
MSEMX Fund Overview
MSEMX — Emerging Markets Small Cap Portfolio is a US mutual fund managed by Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund INC, categorised as Japan Small Cap Blend / Core Equity. ABC INVEST provides holdings, performance, costs, cashflows, risk data, prospectus documents and SEC filings, sourced from SEC filings.
- Type: US mutual fund
- Manager: Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund INC
- Category: Japan Small Cap Blend / Core Equity
- Assets under management: $100.93M
- 1-year return: 41.7%
- Ticker: MSEMX
- SEC CIK: 0000836487
- SEC series ID: S000051831
- Share class ID: C000163116
MSEMX Investment Objective and Strategy
Emerging Markets Small Cap Portfolio describes its objective and strategy as follows, from its latest prospectus filed with the SEC by Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund INC.
Investment objective
"The Emerging Markets Small Cap Portfolio (the ""Fund"") seeks long-term capital appreciation."
Principal investment strategy
"The Adviser seeks to achieve the Fund's investment objective by investing primarily in equity securities of small capitalization companies operating in emerging markets. The Adviser's investment approach combines top-down country allocation with bottom-up stock selection. The Adviser allocates the Fund's assets among emerging markets based on relative economic, political and social fundamentals and investor sentiment. To manage risk, the Adviser emphasizes macroeconomic and fundamental research. The Adviser generally considers selling a portfolio holding when it determines that the holding no longer satisfies its investment criteria. The investment process takes into account information about environmental, social and governance issues (also referred to as ESG) when making investment decisions.
The Adviser focuses on engaging company management around corporate governance practices as well as what the Adviser deems to be materially important environmental and/or social issues facing a company. The investment process excludes holdings in tobacco companies. Under normal market conditions, at least 80% of the Fund's assets will be invested in equity securities of small capitalization companies operating in emerging market countries. This policy may be changed without shareholder approval; however, you would be notified upon 60 days' notice in writing of any changes. A company is considered to be a small capitalization company if it has a total market capitalization at the time of purchase of $3.5 billion or less. Emerging market or developing countries are countries that major international financial institutions or the Fund's benchmark index generally consider to be less economically mature than developed nations, such as the United States or most nations in Western Europe.
Emerging market or developing countries can include every nation in the world except the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and most countries located in Western Europe. For purposes of the Fund's 80% policy, emerging market countries will include frontier emerging market countries. The term ""frontier emerging markets"" refers to those emerging market countries outside the ""mainstream"" emerging markets, whose capital markets have traditionally been difficult for foreign investors to enter or are in early stages of capital market and/or economic development. Frontier emerging market countries in which the Fund currently may invest include Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Botswana, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Ghana, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.
The countries that comprise frontier emerging markets may change from time to time. The equity securities in which the Fund may primarily invest include common and preferred stocks, convertible securities and equity-linked securities, rights, warrants, depositary receipts, limited partnership interests and other specialty securities having equity features. The Fund may hold or have exposure to equity securities of companies in any industry or sector. For purposes of maintaining exposure of at least 80% of the Fund's assets to equity securities of small capitalization companies operating in emerging market countries, the Fund may also invest in American Depositary Receipts (""ADRs""), Global Depositary Receipts (""GDRs"") and other types of depositary receipts with respect to small capitalization companies operating in emerging market countries, and derivative instruments as described herein.
The Fund may, but it is not required to, use derivative instruments for a variety of purposes, including hedging, risk management, portfolio management or to earn income. the Fund's use of derivatives may involve the purchase and sale of derivative instruments such as futures, swaps, contracts for difference (""CFDs""), structured investments and other related instruments and techniques. The Fund may utilize foreign currency forward exchange contracts, which are also derivatives, in connection with its investments in foreign securities. Derivative instruments used by the Fund will be counted toward the Fund's 80% policy discussed above to the extent they have economic characteristics similar to the securities included within that policy."
MSEMX Performance
Total returns for MSEMX (as of 2026-10-01), from SEC filings.
| Period | Total return |
|---|---|
| 1 year | 41.7% |
| 3 years (annualised) | 11.5% |
MSEMX Risk Information
Risk metrics for MSEMX, derived from monthly returns in SEC filings.
- 1-year volatility (annualised): 10.5%
MSEMX Costs and Fees
MSEMX costs about $130 per $10,000 invested per year in fund expenses.
- Net expense ratio: 1.30%
- Gross expense ratio: 1.96%
- Portfolio turnover: 140%
- Brokerage commissions: 31.67 bps of average net assets (SEC N-CEN)
MSEMX Cashflows
Over the 12 months to 2021-06, Emerging Markets Small Cap Portfolio had net inflows of $25.78M, from monthly SEC N-PORT filings.
| Month | Net flow |
|---|---|
| 2021-06 | $110.03K |
| 2021-05 | $558.52K |
| 2021-04 | −$251.12K |
| 2021-03 | $609.92K |
| 2021-02 | $788.25K |
| 2021-01 | −$107.56K |
MSEMX Debt Constituents
No individual debt constituents are reported in Emerging Markets Small Cap Portfolio's latest SEC N-PORT filing.
MSEMX Prospectus and SEC Filings
Official Emerging Markets Small Cap Portfolio filings on SEC EDGAR — prospectus, portfolio holdings and annual reports.
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2020-05-20
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2019-05-17
- Prospectus supplement (497) — filed 2021-05-05
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2021-08-25
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2021-05-27
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2021-02-25
- Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2021-03-10
- Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2020-03-13
Related Funds
Other Japan Small Cap Blend / Core Equity funds tracked on ABC INVEST:
Data Sources
ABC INVEST compiles this page from public filings made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through EDGAR: portfolio holdings and monthly cashflows from Form N-PORT, expenses and returns from fund prospectuses (Form 485BPOS) and the SEC DERA Risk/Return Summary data sets, annual data from Form N-CEN, and shareholder reports from Form N-CSR.