by KYW's Salil Gutt

The investment performance of emerging market funds has been nothing short of outstanding. A broad based emerging market fund had an annual return four times that of the total stock market index in the United States. Some sectors, notably the BRIC countries, Brazil, Russia, India and China had even better performances.  So will the party continue?

Strong stock market performance in any given country reflects the expectations of investors that economies will grow five or more years out. The pros call this discounting future news to reflect in today's prices. Even though emerging market stocks have fallen more sharply this year than in the U.S. the expectation among money managers is that emerging market funds will continue to outperform their counterparts in the U.S. and Europe. These countries have a larger percentage of young people who will become big consumers thereby boosting the economies of these countries in the years ahead.

You can buy a good broad based sales commission free emerging market fund either through Vanguard, Fidelity or T. Rowe Price. Those of you interested in a particular sector, look at Africa and the Middle East as the next hot growth market.