What You Should Know:
- FlexShares sponsors the fund.
- GUNR has an expense ratio of 0.48%.
- The fund holds 117 securities.
- Sector allocations include: integrated oil & gas 25.0%, fertilizers & agricultural chemicals 23.8%, diversified metals & mining 17.7%, gold 9.5%, agricultural products 6.2%, oil & gas exploration & production 4.8%, water utilities 3.3%, paper products 3.0%, specialized REITs 1.6% and multi-utilities 1.2%.
- Country allocations include: U.S. 43.6%, Canada 15.5%, U.K. 10.4%, Australia 7.2%, Sitzerland 3.3%, Russia 3.3%, France 3.1%, South Africa 2.0%, Norway 1.4%, Hong Kong 1.3% and others 8.9%.
- The ETF is up 4.6% over the last month, up 13.2% over the past three months and up 11.5% year-to-date.
- The fund is relatively new and started trading on Sept. 16, 2011.
- “GUNR is suitable as a satellite holding for investors who are optimistic about the long-term demand growth for natural resources, driven by rising standards of living in the developing world,” according to Morningstar analyst Patricia Oey. (Morningstar is the index manager.)
The Latest News:
- Goldman Sachs analysts lowered their 12-month projections on commodity returns to 12% from 15% after the strong rally at the start of the year but held onto their oil and gold predictions, reports Chanyaporn Chanjaroen for Bloomberg.
- The S&P GSCI Index of 24 raw materials has gained 8.5% year-to-date, its highest level in six months.
- “With much of the ‘value’ opportunities behind us, we look to fundamental drivers for further expected gains in 2012, which we believe will be centered in the oil complex,” Goldman analysts said.
- Oil in particular will be sensitive to supply distributions, particularly from Iran.
FlexShares Morningstar Global Upstream Natural Resources Index Fund
For past stories in this series, visit our ETF Spotlight category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.