DBEZ held 682 securities from Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, with a heavy emphasis on issuers from France and Germany, as of November 5, 2014. In contrast, DBEU includes a 28.4% exposure to the United Kingdom and a 14.8% position in Switzerland.
Year-to-date, the Swiss franc has depreciated 7.5% against the USD, the British Pound is down 5.2% against the greenback and the euro weakened 9.4% against the dollar. Europe equity investors who have not hedged their exposure to currency risks would have generated a lower U.S.-dollar-denominated return as these currencies depreciated against the greenback.
Given its focus on Eurozone markets, DBEZ will likely compete with the WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEArca: HEDJ), which also only targets companies located in Eurozone states. HEDJ is up 6.3% year-to-date. [Currency Hedged ETFs for Exploiting ECB Easing]
For more information on new fund products, visit our new ETFs category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.