Emerging Market stocks with numbers that do not lie

Here are some numbers that don’t lie:

·    The Brazilian stock market has doubled this year, on $26 billion of big-investor cash injections. Brazil is one of the safest bets this year, as demand from China for its oil and iron ore is keeping it in high gear. Through the whole recession, Brazil only saw one quarter of contraction.

·    The Russian stock market is up 90% on the year. That market is seriously volatile, and it was down so far at one point that the Russian government simply closed it. With all that said, institutional investors are pouring money into Moscow, betting on the price of oil which is the one sure thing in the country’s economy.

·    Another surprisingly good performer in the past year has been Poland’s stock market, up 100% since September.   Poland has also suffered very little in the recession, its economy turning around quite quickly. Poland has some of the largest and most important companies in Eastern Europe, and many of them are exporting successfully again to Germany as that country’s economy improves.

Any of these market would be a good place to put your money now (Brazil has had to put controls on foreign investment, but that shouldn’t bother you unless you have very large sums to invest).

Any of the good electronic brokers can give you an entry to these markets, or there are plenty of emerging-market funds to choose from if you prefer to play it a little safer.