With more investors, including at the institutional level, looking to tap emerging markets growth without the BRIC burden, issuers of exchange traded funds have been responding to that demand with new funds that offer exposure to what could be the next generation of emerging markets growth stars.
BlackRock’s (NYSE: BLK) iShares, the world’s largest ETF issuer, did just that today with the introduction of the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Horizon ETF (NYSEArca: EMHZ).
EMHZ tracks the MSCI EM Horizon Index, which focuses on the smallest quartile of countries that comprise the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. So while the new ETF features no BRIC exposure and also excludes the highly advanced emerging markets of South Korea and Taiwan, EMHZ does sport solid exposure to Mexico, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey, Poland, Chile, Colombia, Philippines, and Greece, according to iShares.
While institutional investors have been increasingly revisiting emerging markets equities with diversified ETFs such as the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: EEM) and the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: IEMG), satellite and tactical positions via single-country ETFs are also surging in popularity. [BlackRock on Single Country ETFs]
“In the third quarter, investors allocated $9.4 billion to emerging markets equities. Just over half of the emerging markets flows were invested into more selective exposures, indicating that investors are differentiating across regions,” according to iShares.
“Many investors realize they need exposure beyond BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and other large countries like South Korea, Taiwan and South Africa that dominate broad emerging markets funds. The new iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Horizon ETF offers single trade access to 16 of the smallest emerging markets countries to help investors who want precise emerging markets exposure and portfolio diversification,” added Patrick Dunne, head of iShares global markets and investments at BlackRock, in a statement.
EMHZ will compete with ETFs such as the SPDR MSCI EM Beyond BRIC ETF (NYSEArca: EMBB) and the EGShares Beyond BRICs ETF (NYSEArca: BBRC), which is proving to be one of this year’s fastest growing ETFs. [Beyond BRICs ETFs Holding Up Well]
There are important differences between the three funds that indicate the three may be able to coexist. For example, EMBB is a solid choice for the conservative because of its large exposure to South Korea and Taiwan while BBRC excludes those nations while mixing in up to 25% frontier markets exposure. EMHZ rests somewhere in the middle in terms of perceived country risk.
Of the countries found in EMHZ, the one that occupies the largest weight in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index is Mexico at nearly 5%.
Prior to EMHZ, iShares’ most recent fund launch was also an emerging markets ETF. The iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: HEEM) debuted on Sept. 25. http://www.etftrends.com/2014/09/ishares-expands-currency-hedged-etf-suite-with-em-fund/
ETF Trends editorial team contributed to this post. Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of EEM and IEMG.