BlackRock‘s (NYSE: BLK) iShares exchange traded funds business, the largest provider of ETF products, launched three new equity funds Thursday that target Singapore, Hong Kong and other developed global markets.
The iShares MSCI World Index Fund (NYSEArca: URTH) tries to reflect the performance of the MSCI World Index, which includes equity securities in the top 85% of equity market capitalization in developed markets. URTH has an expense ratio of 0.24%. The fund is also highly diversified, with 1,497 holdings and its top holding, Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), only has a 1.83% weighting; however, it leans toward U.S. equities.
URTH’s sector allocations include financials 17.7%, info. tech 12.0%, energy 11.8%, industrials 11.1%, consumer staples, 11.0%, health care 10.5%, consumer discretionary 10.3%, materials 7.2%, telecom services 4.3% and utilities 4.0%. Country allocations include U.S. 52.7%, U.K. 9.8%, Japan 9.1%, Canada 5.2%, France 3.8%, Switzerland 3.6%, Australia 3.6%, Spain 1.4% and other 7.4%.
The iShares MSCI Hong Kong Small Cap Index Fund (NYSEArca: EWHS) tries to reflect the performance of the MSCI Hong Kong Small-Cap Index, which holds small-cap equity securities in the bottom 14% of Hong Kong’s equities. The ETF has 44 holdings and a 0.59% expense ratio. The fund has a heavier weighting toward its top 10 holdings, which make up 40.6% of the overall fund.
EWHS’s sector allocations include consumer discretionary 44.1%, financials 18.5%, industrials 12.2%, info tech 9.2%, materials 5.7%, telecom services 4.1%, energy 3.0%, consumer staples 1.8%, health care 1.1% and utilities 0.3%.
The iShares MSCI Singapore Small Cap Index Fund (NYSEArca: EWSS) tries to reflect the performance of the MSCI Singapore Small Cap Index, which also holds small-cap securities in the bottom 14% of Sinapore’s equities. The ETF has 37 holdings and a 0.59% expense ratio. It’s top 10 holdings make up 45.4% of the overall fund.
EWSS’s sector allocations include financials 48.8%, industrials 18.2%, energy 6.2%, info tech 6.1%, consumer staples 5.6%, consumer discretionary 5.1%, health care 3.9%, telecom services 2.5%, utilities 2.3% and materials 1.3%.
Darek Wojner, head of U.S. iShares Product Development and Management at BlackRock, said in a press release that the iShares MSCI World Index Fund provides investors a “pure play” on global developed equities, and the Hong Kong and Singapore small-cap ETFs also offer more focused exposure to smaller developed markets.
“Investors increasingly want to customize their global equity exposure by dialing up or down certain countries and market caps – a need that iShares is uniquely equipped to address, with the industry’s largest suite of international and global equity ETFs,” Wojnar said.
For more information on new product launches, visit our new ETFs category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.