BUZZ-Ashmore: technicals and EM bulls providing support

** Emerging market specialist Ashmore enjoys its fifth straight day of gains, with traders citing improving sentiment towards EMs and a brighter technical outlook on charts

** Rises 4 pct on Thursday, among top gainers on Stoxx 600 , up 11.8 pct in last four days

** MSCI EM index, led by sharp moves higher in Chinese stocks, up for 9 straight days, a boon for the asset manager as share price closely correlated to the index). Chart: http://link.reuters.com/vag54w

** Stock has broken above 50- and 100-day SMAs this week, looking to close above 200-day SMA on Thursday for the first time since September 2014. Chart: http://link.reuters.com/wag54w

** Co has suffered valuation penalty for EM exposure along with Aberdeen : both stocks trade on c. 13-14x fwd earnings v c. 17x for Henderson and Schroders (LSE: SDR.L - news)

** Ashmore reports Q3 AUM on Apr. 14, high short interest with 72 pct utilisation rate, 9.1 pct shares outstanding on loan according to Markit (RM (LSE: RM.L - news) : alasdair.pal.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)