International investing

Money Digest, Jan, 1998

Canada's stock markets represent only 3% of all stocks traded in the world. This means that, at any given time, there are markets somewhere in the world that do well, often much better than the domestic stock market. We can thus profit by investing internationally.

Investing in foreign stock markets requires considerable knowledge and expertise. Unless you are an expert on foreign investments, your best bet is to invest in a fund that invests in foreign securities. There are several Canadian and U.S.-based funds that invest internationally. There are also several closed-end funds in the United States that invest in stock markets of specific countries.

Here are a few open-end mutual funds that invest outside Canada:

* AGF European Growth

* 20/20 Latin America

* BPI Opportunities

* CIBC N.A. Demographic

* Clean Environment Il Equity

* Glo Mgr German Fund

* Growsafe Euro 100 Index

The performance of these funds is regularly reported by standard industry sources such as The Globe and Mail and The Financial Post.

Single country funds

Another way to participate in the international stock market is through closed-end funds (see the next section). Several closed-end funds that are traded on stock exchanges specialize in investing in specific countries. If you are interested in investing in any given country, you can simply buy the closed-end fund that invests in that country.

Here is a partial list of single country closed-end funds:

* Germany Fund

* India Fund

* India Growth Fund

* Malaysia Fund

* Mexico Fund

* Taiwan Fund

* Thai Fund

* Thai Cap Fund

* United Kingdom Fund

They are all offered on the New York Stock Exchange.