For its part, KWEB has surged nearly 32% since coming to market 14 months ago, indicating that the ETF would be a compelling addition to the emerging markets corner of investors’ portfolios. In fact, KraneShares points out that a portfolio of 80% to the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: EEM) and 20% to KWEB offers a 6.1% one-year return advantage over owning EEM alone.
Importantly, just two stocks representing a mere 2% of EEM’s weight are also found in KWEB. On that note, it should be acknowledged that while it is possible MSCI will make room for Alibaba in its global benchmarks, a final decision on that matter has not been reached and if it is affirmative, Alibaba will not be seen in MSCI indices until March 2015 at the earliest. [MSCI Indices Could Make Room for Alibaba]
However, KFYP and KWEB will make room for Alibaba after the stock’s eleventh trading day, which is rapidly approaching, and are likely to make the stock one of the largest holdings in both ETFs.
That is a good thing when considering that it is estimated 790 million Chinese residents, more than double the U.S. population, will be online in 2016. That is up from an estimated 669 million this year, according to KraneShares data.
KraneShares CSI China Internet Fund
Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of EEM.