We have spent some time in the past several weeks speaking about persistent inflows in emerging markets ETFs in the early part of 2012.
Since major contributors to the emerging markets segment are both India and China (the “I” and the “C” in the BRIC acronym), today we focus on a specialized ETF that likely flies under the radar of most institutional managers due to relatively low daily trading volume. [Best Emerging Market ETFs]
First Trust ISE Chindia (NYSEArca: FNI) tracks the ISE Chindia Index ad owns 50 separate securities that are domiciled in either China or India. Currently, top holdings in FNI are CHL (7.40%), PTR (7.38%), INFY (7.24%), IBN (6.90%), and HDB (6.87%). [India Leads BRIC ETFs]
Unlike iShares China (NYSEArca: FXI), FNI is not slanted toward large cap banks, as the predominant sector weightings are in technology, making up 33.60% of the fund. When compared to two notable, “benchmark type” ETFs in both the China and India spaces, FNI has rallied 22.69% versus FXI up 15.72% and iPath MSCI India ETN (NYSEArca: INP) up 30.76%, so from a simple median standpoint, FNI is roughly in line from a performance standpoint year to date.
FNI trades about 30,000 shares on a daily basis and has a tad higher than $100 million in assets under management, and as we alluded to earlier, likely evades the screens of many institutional managers whom are familiar with many of the other emerging markets based, and China and India specific ETF offerings that generally trade several million shares each in the marketplace daily. [BRICs vs. Emerging Market ETFs]
That said, for those managers that are looking to hone in on exposure to both China and India specifically, FNI presents an interesting alternative.
First Trust ISE Chindia
For more information on Street One ETF research and ETF trade execution/liquidity services, contact pweisbruch@streetonefinancial.com.
