Replies to post #913 on A.I.M. For Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)

[EZ2]

hmmmmmmm !!!

Emerging Markets May Be Latest Bubble
Friday June 16, 3:33 pm ET
By Ellen Simon, AP Business Writer
Emerging Markets Draw Comparison to Tech-Stock Bubble of 1990s, Which May Have Spurred Selloff

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. investors have poured so much money into emerging markets, some on Wall Street are comparing it to the tech-stock bubble of the 1990s.
The parallels are there: A massive run up that attracted herds of investors, pushing prices up to the point where they are hard to justify.

In the worldwide selloff that started in May and lasted until Wednesday, when many markets began to recover, emerging market losses were steep. Fears about higher worldwide interest rates and the next move by the Federal Reserve lopped $6.26 trillion in value off all markets, including the U.S., according to an analysis by Birinyi Associates, a stock research firm.

In the weeks between May 9 and June 13, stocks in Brazil fell 29.59 percent. Indian stocks fell 32.44 percent, tumbling from their all-time high, and stocks in Mexico dropped 24.72 percent, according to Birinyi.

In one month, foreign investors pulled $2.7 billion out of Indian stocks alone. The Bogota stock exchange shed 29 percent in a week, including a 10.5 percent drop Monday. Argentine stocks recently hit a six-month low. On Tuesday, Chile's benchmark Ipsa dropped 4.4 percent, its sharpest one-day drop in seven years.

Almost all the emerging markets have since turned around, but the selloff looked like a sign that emerging stocks might be steeply overvalued.

Until recently, their growth has been remarkable. Morgan Stanley Capital International's 25-country Emerging Markets index jumped a whopping 35 percent in 2005, compared to a 5 percent gain for the Standard & Poor's 500.

The returns were so good, some retail investors put 100 percent of their portfolios in emerging markets, said Quincy Krosby, chief investment strategist for The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., the Connecticut-based insurance company.

"It was very similar to the Nasdaq in the winter of '99," she said. "A lot of the money came in at the top of this peak."

Mutual fund investors have held little back as they chased international growth. For the first four months of this year, world equity mutual funds had inflows of $79.70 billion, dwarfing U.S. domestic fund inflows of $39.89 billion, according to the Investment Company Institute, the mutual fund industry's trade group.

Then, there were the hot emerging market initial public offerings, such as last year's Baidu.com Inc. IPO and Bank of China's Hong Kong IPO, which raised $11.2 billion earlier this month, making it the world's fourth-largest IPO ever.

Offerings by companies based outside the U.S. and Bermuda have dwarfed IPOs by companies based in the U.S. and Bermuda, which is a popular offshore registry for U.S. companies. International markets' public offerings had a deal value of $663.92 billion for 2005 and the beginning of 2006. By contrast, U.S. and Bermuda companies' offerings totaled $275.51 billion, according to Dealogic Analytics.

The flood of international IPOs versus those from the U.S. prompted Tobias Levkovich, Citigroup's chief U.S. equities strategist, to wonder, in a recent note, "If 2000 was the peak of the U.S. technology bubble, could this ... signal a comparable peak in non-U.S. markets?"

U.S. investors who buy on these markets' dips may be trying to catch "falling knives," Levkovich warned, saying the 1990s tech correction took longer than he expected "and we now wonder if a similar situation is developing in regions like Brazil, India, Turkey and Arabia, all of which have been battered this year."

Charles Biderman, chief executive officer of TrimTabs Investment Research, estimates that U.S. investors, both individuals and hedge funds, have poured $500 billion into emerging markets since 2004. He blames that outflow for the near stasis in U.S. stocks.

"If the money stops going offshore and goes into U.S. stocks, this could be the hot market going forward," Biderman said. "We hope. Fingers crossed."

[EZ2]

OT: kavi ---- FYI!! on IFN

Press Release Source: The India Fund, Inc.

The India Fund, Inc. Announces Terms of Rights Offering
Friday June 16, 9:18 am ET


NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 16, 2006--The India Fund, Inc. (NYSE: IFN; the "Fund") announced today the terms of its non-transferable rights offering to holders of its common stock (the "Offer").
The Fund will issue to stockholders of record on July 3, 2006 one right for each share of common stock held. The rights will entitle stockholders to subscribe for additional shares of the Fund's common stock at a subscription price equal to 95% of the Fund's net asset value per share on the expiration date of the Offer, which is August 4, 2006. Stockholders will be able to purchase one share of common stock for every three rights held. The rights are non-transferable and will not be admitted for trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Stockholders who exercise all rights issued to them will be entitled to subscribe for additional shares at the subscription price pursuant to an over-subscription privilege. If sufficient shares are not available to honor all requests for over-subscriptions, the Fund may, in its discretion, issue additional shares in an amount up to 25% of the shares that were available in the primary offering. Regardless whether the Fund issues additional shares, if sufficient shares are not available to honor all over-subscription requests, available shares will be allocated pro rata among stockholders who over-subscribe based on the number of rights originally issued to them by the Fund. If all subscription rights are exercised (including the additional 25%), the Fund will issue approximately 13,203,580 shares of its common stock in the Offer.

The subscription period for the Offer will be from July 3, 2006 to August 4, 2006, unless extended by the Fund. The Fund expects that subscription forms, together with the prospectus, will be mailed to stockholders on July 3, 2006. Stockholders who hold their shares in bank or broker name will receive the Offer materials from their bank or broker.

A Registration Statement relating to the shares has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. The securities to be offered may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time that the Registration Statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the securities to be offered in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state.

For further information regarding the Offer, or to obtain a prospectus, when available, please contact Georgeson Shareholder Communications Inc., the Fund's information agent, at 1-866-297-1264.

The Fund is a closed-end management investment company that seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in Indian equity securities. The Fund is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the trading symbol "IFN."

Blackstone Asia Advisors L.L.C. serves as the Investment Manager to the Fund. The Investment Manager is an affiliate of The Blackstone Group.

Periodically updated information on the Fund can be obtained through the Fund's toll free phone number at 1-866-800-8933. Information on the Fund can be obtained through a link on the Blackstone website (www.blackstone.com).

This press release may contain statements regarding plans and expectations for the future that constitute forward-looking statements within the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking and can be identified by the use of words such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "continue" or other similar words. Such forward-looking statements are based on the Fund's current plans and expectations, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning such risks and uncertainties are contained in the Fund's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.



Contact:
Blackstone Asia Advisors L.L.C.
1-866-800-8933

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Source: The India Fund, Inc.