Well for all you lucky First Solar (FSLR) investors who got shares at IPO prices and never sold, congrats - you had the 12th best stock return in the world.
Courtesy of Bespoke blog are the top 25 stocks in the world. Yes it is chock full of Chinese and Hong Kong stocks - no surprise there. But 4 of the top 11 are Romanian and 2 of the top 10 are Ukranian. This is a part of the world I don't think many give credit to... Eastern Europe. Unfortunately we have very few ways to play this trend through stocks; I have been looking for 3-4 years and have found about 5 names. I did find this mutual fund a few years ago for those interested (but make sure you don't spend all your mutual fund money in 1 place, hint hint) - but even most mutual funds in this part of the world focus 50% or more on Russia, so they are not really looking at areas I'd be most interested in.
While all these emerging markets are well overdue for a pullback, I do like Eastern Europe for the long run (ex Russia), and now have my eyes set on the (non war zone) Middle East and parts of Africa which I think have a lot of opportunity. But finding stocks to take advantage of these trends is even harder - one I have in the portfolio is Millicom International Cellular (MICC)
Long First Solar, Millicom International Cellular in fund; no personal position
