We spoke about upside call interest in the second largest Emerging Markets Equity focused ETF EEM (iShares MSCI Emerging Markets, Expense Ratio 0.67%) in the past couple sessions and although India only represents about 7.63% of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, there has been ample investment interest in the country via ETFs thus far in 2015 and throughout 2014 judging from net creation activity.
ETF issuer Direxion recently pointed out to us the level of inflows that India Equity based ETFs have seen in the past year or so (topping $4 billion collectively) and without really needing to state the obvious, this puts the collective assets under management across India focused Equity ETFs at all-time highs. Direxion’s INDL (Direxion Daily India Bull 3X Shares, Expense Ratio 0.95%) has seen flattish flows year to date although trading volume in the product has been elevated in recent sessions compared to normal levels.
The fund tracks the Indus India Index, incorporating three times daily leverage for those looking to position themselves bullishly on India, and the fund currently has $92 million in assets under management.
Non-leveraged India equity products have been popular thus far in 2015 as well, with INDA (iShares MSCI India, Expense Ratio 0.67%) taking in >$700 million in new assets via creation to grow to a $2.92 billion fund, and the largest in the category.
EPI (WT India Earnings, Expense Ratio 0.83%) which debuted well before INDA in 2008 as compared to 2012, has been dethroned at least at the moment in terms of AUM supremacy in this space, with $2.35 billion in AUM currently.
Other “long” India notables here include INDY (iShares S&P India Nifty 50, Expense Ratio 0.93%, AUM $865 million), PIN (PowerShares India, Expense Ratio 0.82%, AUM $628 million), INP (iPath MSCI India Index ETN, Expense Ratio 0.89%, AUM $398 million), as well as SCIF (Market Vectors India Small Cap, Expense Ratio 0.93%, AUM $302 million) to name the largest funds in terms of AUM.