Last Friday we highlighted two single country based ETFs that grant exposure to Norway, Global X FTSE Norway 30 (NYSEArca: NORW) and iShares MSCI Norway Capped Investable Market (BATS: ENOR), and in a similar vein, today we are focusing on the remaining ETFs in the Nordic/Scandinavian region.
The iShares MSCI Sweden (NYSEArca: EWD) is the largest in the category in terms of assets under management with $276 million, followed by Global X FTSE Nordic Region (NYSEArca: GXF).
GXF owns 30 equities across the following countries: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland. iShares launched two newer ETFs to the landscape earlier this year, iShares MSCI Denmark Capped Investable Market (BATS: EDEN) and iShares MSCI Finland Capped Investable Market (NYSEArca: EFNL).
With the Eurozone tensions and EU in focus seemingly every day in the headlines as we head into the summer, we would expect these ETFs to see above average activity in sympathy with the mainland European equity ETFs.
In terms of performance, the MSCI Europe Index is down 6.73% year to date but GXF has only lost 2.85% and EWD 5.29% during the same timeframe.
EDEN is only down 3.83% since its fund inception in January of this year, however EFNL has been exceptionally weak, having lost 21.87% since launching also in January of this year.
We imagine that there will be a handful of market participants that are using ETFs that are not currently aware of exposure being available to the Nordic countries, seeing current appeal from a valuation standpoint in the region.
Global X FTSE Nordic Region
For more information on Street One ETF research and ETF trade execution/liquidity services, contact pweisbruch@streetonefinancial.com.
