The Best and Worst Emerging-Market Funds

Emerging markets took a dive as investors worldwide re-evaluated the growth potential of both the U.S. and China, demonstrating that the world is more interconnected than it has ever been.

Mexico, Brazil and the rest of Latin America supply large quantities of raw materials to China and manufacture products to be sold in the U.S. So trouble anywhere can become trouble everywhere.

The ripple effects of the Asian selloff soaked the average emerging-markets fund we rate by a disastrous 6.33% for the five trading days ending Thursday, March 1, 2007. The worst rout for stocks since September 2001 sent even the best- performing emerging-market fund down by nearly 4%.

The worst hit was the highly focused (IF Quote)Indonesia Fund (IF), which has 94.8% of its assets invested in Indonesia, 2.3% in Sinapore, 1.5% in Taiwan and 0.9% in Hong Kong. The holdings with the largest declines were Bank Internasional Indonesia( PKIDF Quote), down 10.23%, PT Astra International (ASII -- Jakarta), down 7.69%, and Ramayana Lestari Sentosa (RALS -- Jakarta), down 7.14%.