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Emerging markets commentary Compiled by ANZ Investment Bank, London. Contact: Chris Portman, Tel: +44 171-378 2959

* Gazprom, Russia's biggest natural gas exporter to western Europe, is urgently seeking a comprehensive deal with the government on the long-term sale of shares in the company to foreign corporate investors. The Russian government has come under pressure from the IMF to sell around 5% of its equity capital as part of a financial aid package. Company officials say Moscow could decide to sell as much as 15%.

UK COMPANIES are finding it hard to get a listing on the London market as the impact of the global market turmoil affects expectations of vendor proceeds. This week, Avocet Hardware announced the postponement of its flotation as a result of steep falls in stockmarket valuations -- the first time a UK management buy-out has decided to delay its listing.

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Investors have been too risk averse to focus on anything other than the highest quality paper; and corporate issuers have been loath to issue at spreads which would have seemed unthinkable only months ago.

FORD Motor Credit brought some much needed life to the spread product markets this week when it launched a $750m global bond -- the first truly internationally targeted fixed rate deal from a single-A rated corporate since June.

DESPITE the recent surge in confidence in global stockmarkets, the sale of stock in Fox Entertainment by News Corporation has been postponed. Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of the multinational media group, this week announced that market turmoil has resulted in the delay of the $2.5bn flotation.

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BANQUE Nationale de Paris, Citibank and Paribas are near to closing off the co-arranging phase of the jumbo Ffr19bn credit for Carrefour. After speculation that the deal was too tight to succeed in the present difficult market, arrangers report that a strong response has been received and that the deal is already fully subscribed.

ACTIVITY in the German small-cap primary market is set to continue, with Robert Fleming to lead manage its first deal on the Neuer Markt (NM) next week. The UK firm, which has missed out on the recent NM boom, has won the mandate to lead the $20m sale of stock in Articon Information Systems. Articon is the privately owned leading provider of Internet security, including auditing protection.

A surprise 25bp cut in interest rates by the Federal Reserve on Thursday caused spread tightening of up to 10bp in high grade bonds and between 50bp and 60bp in emerging market debt. The Fed said it was acting in response to growing lender caution and unsettled conditions in financial markets that were restraining the US economy.

HOW MANY more of yesterday's Wall Street heroes will bite the dust? John Meriwether and his Hole In The Wall gang are already being measured for Boot Hill. Nomura's Ethan Penner and CSFB's Andy Stone are down to their last bullet and their last $100m. Mike Vranos, once the fastest mortgage gun at Kidder Peabody, now carries only a water pistol (and that only fires backwards). Julian Robertson of Tiger gunned down six of the seven Samurai but the one Japanese survivor caught Robertson with a round of buck-shot in the duff.