As important as knowing that money is flowing into these markets is knowing what stocks investors are buying. Those include blue chips such as Emaar Properties and Qatar National Bank along with other Qatari banks. Financials account for over 59% of GULF’s weight and Qatar National Bank is the ETF’s second-largest holding at a weight of 7.1%.
GULF also features a tempting distribution yield of 6.5%, partially the result of solid dividend growth from Dubai and Qatar-listed financial services and telecom shares dating back to last year. [A Surprise Region Leads ETFs in 2014]
MES allocates almost 63% of its weight to financials. Emaar Properties and Qatar National Bank combine for 12.3% of that ETF’s weight.
Although GULF and MES do not yet qualify as large ETFs, money flowing into Qatar and UAE has been reflected in these ETFs. GULF has nearly doubled in size this year while MES gained more than 20% of its current assets since the start of 2014.
WisdomTree Middle East Dividend Fund
Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of EEM.