Rick Rieder

BlackRock Inc. has taken advantage of the recent rout in emerging-market bonds and currencies to scoop up dollar-denominated bonds sold by Indonesia, India and Mexico.

Rick Rieder, co-head of Americas fixed income at BlackRock. said Thursday in an interview that he has added to holdings of these three countries over the past two months. He didnt elaborate on the size of the purchases and which maturities he purchased.

The move suggests the worlds largest money manager doesnt expect stress in some emerging-market countries since January ranging from Argentina, Turkey to Ukraineto pose a broader threat to global financial markets and the economic outlook. BlackRock has $4.32 trillion assets under management at the end of December.

Emerging market bonds have stabilized after January’s selloff. The Barclays EM USD Aggregate Index, which measures the performance of dollar-denominated debt from sovereign, quasi-sovereign, and corporate issuers in developing countries, has posted a total return of 1.9% since the start of February through Wednesday, rebounding from 0.28% loss in January, according to Barclays.

In a news briefing on the firm’s market outlook Thursday, Sergio Trigo Paz, head of emerging-market fixed income at BlackRock, characterized the wide-ranging emerging markets as asymmetric, and that some assets provide relatively attractive value.

He highlighted the attractiveness of dollar-denominated bonds sold by developing nations which as a group has performed relatively well since the start of the year despite the broad selloff in emerging market assets ranging from stocks, bonds to currencies.

In the interview Thursday, Mr. Rieder also signaled a continued shift in the firms allocation in the euro zones sovereign debt market.

Over the past two months, Mr. Rieder said he has slashed holdings of Spain and Italy and bought government bonds sold by Portugal and Slovenia. He also bought European corporate bonds during the period.

In an interview at the end of January, Mr. Rieder said the firm “significantly reduced” its holdings of Spanish and Italian sovereign bonds in a variety of portfolios over the past four to five weeks, a shift from last year when Spain and Italy had been among his favorite assets to buy.

Mr. Rieder reiterated Thursday that bond yields in Spain and Italy have fallen to unattractive levels and that some other peripheral countries in euro zone now provide more attractive yields. When bond yields fall, their prices rise.

Mr. Rieder said the euro zone debt market has been bolstered by a stabilizing euro zone where the economy is emerging from a recession. Another boost for euro zone debt has been easy monetary stimulus from the European Central Bank.

Bond yields in euro zone have tumbled since ECB President Mario Draghi said in July 2012 that the bank is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. Since then fears over the euro zones debt crisis has diminished, and the euro zones bond market has regained investors confidence.

Thursday, the 10-year Spanish bond yielded 3.383%, while the 10-year Italian bond yielded 3.443%. Both traded lower compared to 4.415% on the 10-year Portugal bond and 3.84% on Slovenias 10-year bond.