After a dismal year, two members of the BRICs – Brazil, Russia, India and China – may not be up to normal standards that the markets have come to expect. Instead of taking on broad exposure, investors can pick and choose country weights with exchange traded funds.
Over the past year, the iShares MSCI BRIC ETF (NYSEArca: BKF) was up 0.5%, SPDR S&P BRIC 40 ETF (NYSEArca: BIK) rose 1.1% and Guggenheim BRIC ETF (NYSEArca: EEB) was down 11.1%. [Bad Sequel: Brazil, LatAm ETFs Start 2015 in 2014 Fashion]
Weighing on the BRICs group, Brazil and Russia stumbled last year. For instance, the iShares MSCI Brazil Capped ETF (NYSEArca: EWZ) declined 14.2% over the past year while the Market Vectors Russia ETF (NYSEArca: RSX) plunged 44.1%. [Russia ETFs Slide After S&P Revises Outlook, Warns of Junk Rating]
On the other hand, the Deutsche X-trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares ETF (NYSEArca: ASHR), which tracks mainland Chinese A-shares, surged 61.9% over the past year, while Chinese H-shares ETFs including the iShares China Large-Cap ETF (NYSEArca: FXI) rose 20.1% and SPDR S&P China ETF (NYSEArca: GXC) increased 11.0%.
Additionally, the WisdomTree India Earnings Fund (NYSEArca: EPI) was up 31.8%,iShares India 50 ETF (NasdaqGM: INDY) was 31.1% higher and PowerShares India Portfolio (NYSEArca: PIN) rose 24.6% over the past year.
Alternatively, investors can target the two large Asian economies through the First Trust ISE Chindia Index Fund (NYSEArca: FNI), which includes both Chinese and Indian stocks.
Jim O’Neill, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chief economist who coined the BRIC acronym, argues that we might have to shorten the acronym to just “IC” if Brazil and Russia fail to revive their flailing economies by the end of the decade, Bloomberg reports.