Emerging markets: Risks abound but so do opportunities

FOR a while in 2016, it seemed that emerging markets (EMs) may yet shake off the malaise that has afflicted them over the past three to four years. Valuations were relatively attractive and the cycle of earnings downgrades appeared finally to have bottomed.

The region contended with headwinds in the form of worries over China's slowdown, the surging US dollar and, later in the year, Donald Trump's triumph in the US presidential election…