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Looking for a highly-rated fund that offers exposure to Asian equities? Prefer passives? These three exchange traded funds are among the best performers in their sector, carrying a four or five star quantitative rating.
iShares MSCI AC Far East ex-Japan ETF (IFFF)
The fund provides diversified exposure to large- and mid-cap stocks within many of the developing and developed markets of Asia, outside of Japan. Many of the component countries have seen their importance on the global stage rise dramatically in recent years. The Chinese economy now ranks second in the world, behind only the United States.
The MSCI AC Far East ex-Japan Index is heavily concentrated in financials, which accounts for nearly one-third of its total weighting. Returns from the underlying index have been quite volatile, with an annualised standard deviation of 22.1% since 1999 versus 15.4% for the S&P 500 and 16.0% for the MSCI World. But they have been less erratic than the benchmarks tracking the individual countries that make up the biggest parts of the index.
This fund may suit income-seeking investors as it pays dividends from the underlying stocks on a quarterly basis.
db x-trackers Asia Ex Japan High Dividend Yield ETF (XAHG)
This fund tracks the MSCI AC Asia ex Japan High Dividend Yield Index. MSCI has created the Index to serve as a performance benchmark for investors focusing on dividend yield and to help investors obtain and manage exposure to the high dividend yielding segments of the MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Index.
The Index objectively and passively tracks the high dividend yield opportunity set within the MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Index and is intended to reflect dividend yield focused investment processes. The MSCI AC Asia ex Japan High Dividend Yield Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalisation weighted index reflecting the performance of large and mid-capitalisation companies in Asia excluding Japan.
RBS Market Access DAXglobal® Asia ETF (ASDX)
The fund's objective is to replicate, as far as possible, the performance of the DAX Global Asia Index. In order to gain exposure to the DAX Asia Index, the DAX Asia Sub-Fund will use a method of synthetic replication of the DAX Asia Index, as set forth below.
The fund intended that the DAX Asia Sub-Fund's assets will be invested mainly in equities and other securities classed as equities, Money Market Instruments, money market funds, negotiable debt instruments and debt or interest rate instruments, synthetic Money Market Instruments, bonds and other debt instruments.
