ETFs for Exposure to Emerging Russia

With a Russia-focused exchange-traded fund now available to U.S. investors, you don't need to open a brokerage account in Moscow to play the Russian market. Here is a look at a way to start investing in an economy that's been reborn.

R Is for Russia (and Returns)

Brazil, Russia, India and China are the four countries expected to outpace their emerging market peers over the next several decades (see "'BRIC' ETF Investing: An Introduction"). Of the BRIC countries, Russia is probably the most volatile market and the one that has been on the radar of mainstream American investors the longest.

But if you're interested in investing in Russia, it may be harder to get your foot in the door than you'd expect. Since most Russian companies are not listed on American exchanges, chances are you'll have a hard time buying 1,000 shares of (for example) Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, from your broker. (See Sberbank's investor relations Web page.)

That's where ETF investing comes in. An ETF can make it easy to gain exposure to emerging markets by offering them up in one tidy package. In the case of Russia, the country-specific Van Eck Global's Market Vectors Russia ETF (RSX), which has only been on the market since May, has already returned more than 13%.

RSX's primary components are in the oil, gas, iron and steel industries. These four areas make up about 58% of the total fund. In all, the ETF represents the 30 Russian securities from the DAXglobal Russia+ Index . (To learn about ETF investing, visit TheStreet.com's ETF Center.)