#11
Financial Times (UK)
21 December 2001
Moscow's elusive market makers show up online: Paul
Taylor tracks down Russian securities information on the internet
By PAUL TAYLOR
As most investors in emerging markets know, Russia has been the best performing securities market in the sector this year. But keeping track of market developments in Moscow is not always that easy.
The first stop for those with an interest in Russian securities and an internet connection should be the website of the Federal Commission for the Securities Market (www.fedcom.ru) - the Russian equivalent of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was established in 1994.
The site includes regulatory information and other news related to the securities industry and an information disclosure link taking visitors to a searchable database of issuers, announcements and quarterly reports. It also provides links to other useful websites under the subheading Internet Resources on the Russian Securities Market.
These include the Central Bank of the Russian Federation website (www.cbr.ru/eng) and the Russian Trading System (www.rts.ru/engl), the stock exchange website. The Central Bank site is packed with currency, financial and monetary data as well as economic news and press releases.
The RTS website includes RTS index statistics and graphical information and, perhaps most usefully, a searchable database of all RTS-listed companies, including current price quotes, trading volumes, historical stock data and basic company information with a link to the company's own website.
Under "participants", the RTS site also gives details of RTS members and market makers. A "news" link provides two news streams, one related to the exchange, the other running all the official announcements issued by listed companies.
Another key web resource for those interested in investing in Russia - or any of 50 other nations, including many in eastern Europe, Transcaucasia and Central Asia - is the European Internet Network (www.europeaninternet.com), a business information and online news service.
EIN's operations include both paid-for subscription-based services and a searchable database of more than 51,000 articles and a family of country-specific, advertising-supported websites.
EIN's Russia site operates as a portal, enabling visitors to browse by category. The business category leads to 55 sub-categories such as financial services, stockbrokers and venture capital firms.
The venture capital section includes links to the Russian Venture Capital Association and a number of international organisations. Among these, the US Russia Investment Fund, a private US investment firm managed by Delta Capital that claims to have invested almost Dollars 200m in Russian companies since the fund was set up in 1995.
Registered users, who pay Dollars 5.83 a month, can access EIN's aggregated news services, although headlines are provided free of charge.
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