bloom
Brett Fromson
YOU’VE heard of the Nasdaq Stock Market, but how about the Rasdaq? The Rasdaq is Romania’s new stock market; it is one of dozens of financial bazaars to spring up worldwide in the thaw following the end of the Cold War.
As communist and socialist governments have fallen, the new regimes have privatised thousands of state enterprises and have sought to attract foreign capital by establishing or reviving stock and bond markets.
Since the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, 60 securities markets have emerged or are about to open in countries from Albania to Uganda, according to figures from the Toronto Stock Exchange and other sources.
Even the French, who are not enamoured of free markets, recently created Le Nouveau Marche, to attract public money to help finance young, high-technology companies.
The United States government, in a post-Cold War effort to speed the transition toward capitalism, is helping to jump-start financial markets around the globe. The US Agency for International Development spent $23-million in Romania, much of it to buy the computers for Rasdaq, to train brokers and to establish self-regulatory structures.
US stock markets also are working hand-in- glove with these governments. Nasdaq provided the expertise for Rasdaq.
The spread of capitalism has been a boon for investors, according to international investment managers.
“This is good news, because it opens opportunities [for] investors that previously didn’t exist,” said Jean-Marie Evaillard, portfolio manager of the SoGen International and SoGen Overseas mutual funds.
“But investors should be aware that to be successful in an emerging market, one has to be early. These markets often rise and fall in line with the enthusiasm of foreign investors.”
Some international investors worry that the bumper crop of new markets represents a peak in the popularity of financial assets as much as an investing opportunity.
“Today markets are opening all over the place, and stock prices, in many markets, are at all-time highs. The danger is that people may be investing in countries and companies they have little understanding of,” says one international investor. – The Washington Post