Investors seeking to diversify their portfolios by gaining broad exposure to the Nordic region have three ETF options to choose from: the XACT Nordic 30 and XACT Nordic 120, which are traded on the Stockholm stock exchange, and the Amundi ETF MSCI Nordic, which is listed on Euronext Paris. They all track indices which include equities from Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway. Swedish equities are the best represented of the bunch accounting for over half the value of each of these benchmarks.
XACT Nordic 30 is more concentrated than the other two funds as it tracks a far narrower index, but it has a similar sector breakdown. Financials and industrials lead the way with a 40% combined weighting, followed by information technology. Top holdings include Novo Nordisk (9.1%), Nokia (NOK1V) (8.1%) and H&M (7.7%).
Along with its Nordic 120 ETF, XACT launched seven sector funds last September. They track the 120 largest listed companies in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway within the bank & insurance, material, industrial, construction & real estate, energy, consumer goods and health care industries.
In October, XACT also launched the first commodity ETF on the Stockholm stock exchange. XACT Råvaror combines global exposure with a Nordic focus by tracking the development of the SHB Commodity Index (Excess Return). This index is designed to track the performance of a passive investment in a basket of the futures contracts for 15 commodities, including oil, electricity and paper pulp.
See our analysis of ETFs invested in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, and our overview of investing in the Nordics via ETFs.