The pure-play ETF is Market Vectors Egypt Index ETF (NYSE: EGPT).  A week ago it was at $18.80 and it closed at $16.22 on Friday.  After having much of the morning with shares halted, the ETF is up 5.6% at $17.14 on just over 600,000 shares right after 2:00 PM EST.

Market Vectors Africa Index ETF (NYSE: AFK) was down over 4% at $32.36 late on Friday and shares are up 0.4% at $32.44 today.

The Morgan Stanley Frontier Emerging Markets (NYSE: FFD) was down over 5% at $14.28 late on Friday and shares are up 1.8% at $14.42 today.

Turkey is even farther away than some peers, but the drop happened last week and the recovery is here today.  The iShares MSCI Turkey Investable Market Index (NYSE: TUR) was down 6.9% at $58.07 late on Friday and shares are up 3.1% at $59.84 this afternoon.  The Turkish Investment Fund Inc. (NYSE: TKF) was down 5.6% at $15.10 late Friday and shares are up 2.3% at $15.45 this afternoon.

North African and Middle East tension always causes concern in Israel… The Aberdeen Israel Fund Inc. (NYSE: ISL) was down 4.3% at $16.75 late Friday and shares are down another 1.5% at $16.50 today.  The iShares MSCI Israel Cap Investable Market Index (NYSE: EIS) was down 3.1% at $57.84 late on Friday and shares are today trading down another 2.4% at $56.59.

The SPDR S&P Emerging Middle East & Africa (NYSE: GAF) was down almost 5% at $68.62 late on Friday and shares are up 0.9% at $69.21 on Monday afternoon.

Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) had traded ad low as $110.20 on Friday and closed at $114.84 with its substantial exposure in Egypt.  Shares have recovered yet another 2.8% today to $118.05.

Partner Communications Company Ltd. (NASDAQ: PTNR) offers cellular phone service under the Orange brand in Israel.  Shares closed down over 2% Friday at $20.04 and shares are down another 4.7% at $19.09 this afternoon.

Vimpel-Communications (NYSE: VIP) is a Russian cellular provider but it is in the midst of acquiring Orascom’s telecom assets in Egypt and shares closed down almost 3% at $13.96 on Friday.  Its shares are down another 0.5% today.

JON C. OGG

This index measures the performance of the equity markets in Israel an is designed as a custom, free float adjusted market cap weighted index thats measures broad based equity market performance in Israeli stocks traded primarily on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The Underlying Index’s three largest industries were health care, financials and materials.

There are very few actual closed-end funds or ETF’s that are solely based on Israel, although some do include Israeli stocks in the region.  The First Israel Fund Inc. (AMEX: ISL) has fewer than 5 million shares outstanding and trades about 24,000 shares on an average day.

• Africa: The Final Emerging Market Frontier… GAF, EZA, TRAMX

Jon C. Ogg
March 28, 2008