The Fed’s tapering decision is going over well in Europe exchange traded funds, with European stocks gaining for the third consecutive day and moving on their best weekly performance since April.
The Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (NYSEArca: VGK) is up 1.9% since the Fed announcement Wednesday. VGK rose 19.7% year-to-date. [A 2014 Game Plan for Europe ETFs]
“The positive move here is still a reaction on the Fed getting the tapering is not tightening message right,” Witold Bahrke, a senior strategist at PFA Asset Management, said in a Bloomberg article. “This is still giving some relief to European stocks.”
The broad Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 3.7% for the week, rallying on positive economic data in the U.S and on heavy volumes. Shares changing hands on the Stoxx 600 was 69% higher than the average for the past 30 days.
“With today’s quadruple witch, the last high volume day in 2013, liquidity will dry out into next week, so it is the perfect environment for window dressing and for squeezing markets higher,” Christoph Hock, an equity sales trader at Alpha Wertpapierhandels GmbH, said in the article.
Popular diversified Europe ETFs, such as the Vanguard’s VGK and the iShares Europe ETF (NYSEArca: IEV), feature large combined allocations to the U.K. and Switzerland, which diminish some of the risks associated with investing in European assets. For example, IEV’s combined weight to the U.K. and Switzerland is almost 47%.
On the other hand, the SPDR EURO STOXX 50 Fund (NYSEArca: FEZ) excludes the U.K. and Switzerland in favor of a heavy tilt toward Eurozone countries, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
“Unlike many pan-European funds, this fund excludes stocks based in the United Kingdom and Switzerland,” according to Morningstar analyst Alex Bryan. “This exclusion leaves out nearly half of the total stock market capitalization of developed Europe and magnifies the fund’s exposure to the weaker members of the eurozone, including Italy and Spain. While this narrower profile can offer greater upside in a recovery, it also exposes investors to greater risk.”
Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF
For more information on Europe, visit our Europe category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.