January 29, 2008 at 1:00 am by Tom Lydon
In December, Barclays added another international exchange traded fund (ETF) to its lineup: the iShares MSCI Kokusai Index Fund (TOK).
TOK covers 1,203 holdings in 22 developed markets, minus Japan, with the United States taking the most holdings at 50%. The second-largest constituent is the United Kingdom, at 12%. There are also holdings in Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
The largest holding is ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM) at 2%. It’s most heavily concentrated in financials, at 24.7%. When the fund launched, Matt Hougan for Index Universe wondered if it wasn’t a strange product to launch on a U.S. exchange since, after all, most U.S. investors are already invested in this market and would instead want exposure to Japan in their portfolios.
But the most intriguing thing about the fund, we think, is its name: "kokusai" is the Japanese word for "international." It’s an interesting choice of word for a fund with no holdings in Japan.
Tags: Austria, Belgium, Energy, Europe, EWD, EWI, EWK, EWL, EWP, EWU, Financial, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Oil, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom
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January 29th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Sitting here in the US, when I think of ‘international’ as opposed to global or worldwide funds, I think of ex-US. So projecting yourself to Tokyo, ‘international’ obviously corresponds to ex-Japan. So ‘kokusai’ is a clever play that conveys the investment category in the most direct and concise way possible.