A European country that may be overlooked at times because it is not currently a member of the European Union and maintains its own currency, the Swiss Franc, is Switzerland.
The iShares MSCI Switzerland (NYSEArca: EWL) is the largest ETF in the space that delivers exposure to this country, and the fund has amassed $5.6 billion since its launch back in 1996.
Some well – known companies are domiciled in Switzerland, as the top holdings of EWL would indicate. Currently, the top weightings in EWL look like this, NESN (Nestle, SA, 23.03%), NVSEF (Novartis AG, 12.80%), and RHHVF (Roche Holding AG, 12.78%).
From a sector standpoint, EWL is heavily slanted towards Health Care (28.79%), Consumer Staples (23.90%), and Financials (15.11%).
Recently, another issuer, First Trust, also launched a country specific ETF devoted to Switzerland, First Trust Switzerland AlphaDEX (NYSEArca: FSZ).
Like all of the AlphaDEX products, the index attempts to isolate stocks based on fundamental and quantitative metrics, and ranks and weights them accordingly for potential inclusion in the index.