Emerging Market Funds

mlk_man

Banned
Careful with those Emerging Market funds.

M_M

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]“The Persian Gulf's highflying stock markets, suffering their first serious correction after years of gains, are raising concerns that a speculative bubble may burst and hurt emerging markets more broadly. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Fueled by cash from high oil prices, stock markets in Dubai, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and elsewhere in the Gulf have tripled or more in value in the past three years. But in recent weeks, these stocks have suffered double-digit losses, with Saudi Arabia, the region's biggest stock market, shedding about a third of its value since late February. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Stock investing has been taken up as a hobby in an unprecedented number of households in the Gulf, where economies are booming from rising oil revenue.

An initial public offering of stock from Saudi Arabia's Yanbu National Petrochemicals Co. reportedly received orders from 40% of the kingdom's adult population. Many investors have borrowed money to bet heavily on highflying stocks.”
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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] -The Wall Street Journal[/FONT]




Here is a chart of Dubai's stock market:

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20060328-chart_b_LG.gif
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I've been rebalancing my portfolio this week and purged my emerging market fund because 1) underperformance and 2) it caused a few redundancies with my new funds.

I had no idea about this. Bad news with those funds with big middle east holdings. Most of the ones I've researched have their big holdings in S. Korea, Taiwan, and Brazil. You know, I think we should stop considering those places "emerging."
 
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