Several weeks back we highlighted ETF plays that offer exposure to the small cap segment of India’s equity market, as these funds have been beaten down rather harshly in the past month or so from a performance standpoint.
During Monday’s session, the largest ETF in the “India” segment saw some options activity, prompting us to look at this and related products this morning.
EPI (WisdomTree India Earnings, Expense Ratio 0.83%) currently has $1.03 billion in assets under management, substantially outpacing the next largest fund in this category, which is INDY (iShares S&P India Nifty 50, Expense Ratio 0.89%).
From a volume perspective, EPI is clearly on most institutional radars as well, as the fund averages 3.1 million shares traded daily.
Top holdings in EPI at the moment are Reliance Industries Ltd. (8.50%), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (6.80%), and Infosys Ltd. (6.42%).
Trading at its lowest price levels since November of last year, along with the rest of India based ETFs the fund has lagged considerably this year, with the negative price momentum really accelerating since the beginning of February.
We have reported the flagging performance of other Emerging Markets including China, Russia, and Brazil relative to say U.S. equities, and a general theme of put buying in broad based products EEM (iShares MSCI Emerging Markets, Expense Ratio 0.67%) and VWO (Vanguard Emerging Markets, Expense Ratio 0.20%).
With some bargain hunters emerging apparently in EPI yesterday and purchasing upside calls, we will watch this and other India related ETFs closely in coming sessions to see if they can recoup some of the losses that have occurred mainly in the past two months.
WisdomTree India Earnings
For more information on Street One ETF research and ETF trade execution/liquidity services, contact Paul Weisbruch at pweisbruch@streetonefinancial.com.