QikReview: Top Europe Stock Mutual Funds

Below is a brief review of two Europe Stock mutual funds.

ING Russia A LW (LETRX.LW)

Category: Europe Stock
Rating: 3
Capital Gains Exposure: -%
Assets: $0.8 bil
Expense Ratio: 1.98%
Turnover Ratio: 12%
Yield: 0.00%
Redemption Period: 365 days
Redemption Fee: 2.0%
3-Year Total Cost: $1,198
Minimum Investment: $1,000
Comments: It is #4 for 1-year returns. #1 for 5- and 3-year returns! After its humongous crash in 1998, fund returns have been outstanding ranging from 80% in 2001 to 5% in 2004. So far it's down by 13%, but Russia should keep on soaring. Invests into Large Growth companies; Telecom (14), Financial (16), Industrial Materials (16), and Energy (42); only 1% in Cash. It has only 30 holdings, with the largest stake of 14% in the Sberbank, Russia's central bank. It is definitely very expensive. It doesn't seem possible to get this fund without the load or maybe I just don't know how to get it waived. A 5.75% front load + 365 day redemption makes this fund a no-go for me.

Fidelity Nordic (FNORX)

Category: Europe Stock
Rating: 4
Capital Gains Exposure: 16%
Assets: $0.8 bil
Expense Ratio: 1.10%
Turnover Ratio: 62%
Yield: 4.03%
Redemption Period: 90 days
Redemption Fee: 1.5%
3-Year Total Cost: $337
Minimum Investment: $2,500
Comments: This is a decent fund for it's category with a relative performance that is not too bad at #16 for 5-years and #9 for 3-years, although 1-year returns rank it only #27. I don't like anything that falls for a long, long time and this fund was down in 2002, 2001, and 2000. This downward spiral isn't very inspiring, especially with the bear market bearing over us. This Large-cap Growth fund invests into Giant (30), Large (41), Medium (17), and Small (11) companies. It invests into Hardware (20), Telecom (14), Healthcare (10), and Indistrials (29). It has exposure to Sweden (35), Finland (21), Norway (18), Denmark (7), and Switzerland (3). It has only 1% of assets in Cash. This fund has an interesting niche with decent returns, but it is far from being a top pick on my list.

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