Russian equities and mutual funds have been amongthe best-performing inemerging markets over the pastyear and top the Morningstar list for European fund returns, with ING's Russia fund returning more than 84 per cent.

The gains have been fuelled largely by the relative value offered by Russian stocks. As Brian Gendreau, of Salomon Smith Barney, noted recently: "Even though Russia's market has risen by more than 40 per cent in local currency terms over the past year, its valuation remains among the least expensive in emerging markets." Russia's forecast price-earnings ratio, for example, is only 6.

At the same time, investors have grown more confident in the ability of Vladimir Putin government's ability to push through economic reforms and have been encouraged by continuing improvements in corporate governance.

For would-be investors in Russia, the world wide web provides a growing source of basic economic, financial and market information. Among the most useful Russian information portals are Russia on the Net (http:// www.ru/eng), which has an extensive directory of links to bank and finance-related sites. Other front-page directory sections include "News and Media" and "Government and Legislation."

The Russia Journal (www.russiajournal.com), which began publishing in Moscow in 1998, claims to be Russia's top-read English-language business weekly with a print and web readership of more than 200,000 worldwide. The web version includes news, comment, and analysis about Russian politics, economy and business and is both easy to navigate and read.

For finance and economic statistics Russia's central bank, the Bank of Russia (www.cbr.ru/eng), provides a wealth of information including money supply, balance of payments and interest rate data. The central bank site also includes news about the banking system, foreign exchange and monetary policy and an up-to-date assessment of economic trends.

The Russian Stock Exchange (www.rts.ru/eng) is also a mine of basic information and one of the best places to seek information about the 231 companies listed on the exchange. Aside from price and other stock and RTS index information, the site also provides listed companies' news releases and links to company web sites.

The front page of the site includes an RTS Index graph, a stock exchange ticker search engine and headline news about the markets and participants.

Euromoney's Internet Securities subscriber-based emerging market service (www.securities.com) is also a valuable source of information for investors in eastern Europe and Russia. The service faces new competition from Emerging Markets Online (www.businessmonitor.com/online), Business Monitor International's new daily internet-based service that promises "same-day comment and interpretation of key financial, economic and political developments across emerging markets".

Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 1995-2002