Not Just GREK: Other ETFs Feel Greece’s Pain

The Global X FTSE Greece 20 ETF (NYSEArca: GREK) is the exchange getting the most attention Monday as it careens toward new lows and its worst intraday performance since coming to market in late 2011. GREK, the only dedicated Greece ETF, is of 16.4% on volume that is nearly quadruple the daily average at this writing, but it is not the only ETF being pinched by Greece’s increasingly financial situation.

Although Greece is just a small part of major developed and emerging markets indexes (the country is classified as an emerging market by MSCI, among other index providers), there are some ETFs beyond GREK with large enough exposure to Greek stocks to be feeling some pain today.

The Guggenheim Global Shipping ETF (NYSEArca: SEA), which tries to reflect the performance of the Dow Jones Global Shipping Index and holds high dividend-paying companies in the global shipping industry, has an almost 8% weight to Greece, making the country SEA’s fourth-largest geographic weight. That is enough to have the ETF trading lower by 1.8% today. [Lower Oil Prices Weigh on Shipping ETF]

On more than double the average daily turnover, the actively managed Cambria Global Value ETF (NYSEArca: GVAL) is lower by almost 4% by way of its 6% weight to Greek stocks. That Greece exposure is current as of the end of the first quarter, according to Cambria data.

GVAL’s Monday punishment could also be attributable to investors fretting about what European shoe will next to drop. That is a potential problem for GVAL, which allocated a combined 30% of its weight to Italian, Spanish and Portuguese stocks at the end of March. The ETF is still up 1.7% this year.