Much has been made of the relative underperformance of the Chinese equity market this year, and even with global equities mostly breaking out over the past week or so, the largest ETF in the space in terms of assets, iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (NYSEArca: FXI), continues to lag other emerging markets
FXI is down 1.17% YTD versus the broader EEM (iShares MSCI Emerging Markets) which has rallied 6.62% even with China being the highest weighted country component in the index at roughly 18%.
It is important to note that FXI has a slant towards large cap financials names, with this sector making up 54% of the entire underlying index. [China ETF Performance is Red Flag for Global Economy]
Perhaps even more notably, China Mobile ordinary shares are the largest single equity component of FXI (10.82% weighting) and the stock has been absolutely hammered in recent sessions (falling more than 10% in just the past four trading days).
China based equity ETFs that are in the top echelon in the category in terms of performance year to date include the following: YAO (Guggenheim China All-Cap), CHIX (Global X China Financials), GXC (SPDR S&P China), MCHI (iShares MSCI China Index), and FCA (First Trust China AlphaDEX).
YAO has rallied 5.91% while CHIX is up 5.53% YTD. FCA has risen 3.60% YTD while GXC is up 3.31%, with MCHI increasing 2.91% during this time period.