“Economics alone justifies exposures to Polish equities and holdings in the stock markets of Estonia and Lithuania. Solid prospects for economic expansion speak volumes to the success of Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his policymaking team for their astute stewardship of the domestic economy in having engineered the country’s circumvention of the 2008 recession,” said S&P Capital IQ.
The iShares MSCI Poland Capped ETF (NYSEArca: EPOL) and the Market Vectors Poland ETF (NYSEArca: PLND) have traded lower since the start of the Ukraine crisis, which makes sense as Poland shares a border with Ukraine. Still, both ETFs have outperformed broader emerging markets benchmarks this year. The rub, says S&P Capital IQ, is that Polish financials are expensive. EPOL, which S&P Capital IQ rates underweight, allocates nearly 54% of its weight to financial services names.[Poland ETFs Resilient Amid Regional Strife]
S&P Capital IQ has a marketweight rating on the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Eastern Europe Index Fund ETF (NYSEArca: ESR). ESR is off almost 4% Thursday and trading at all-time lows. The ETF has been plagued by a third of its weight – Gazprom, Lukoil and Sberbank – being among Russia’s worst-performing large-caps since the start of the Ukraine crisis.
iShares MSCI Poland Capped Investable Market Index Fund
