“Kuwait (+2.9%) and Industrials (+3.5%) saw the biggest increases in weight. The driving factor is that these segments of the market significantly underperformed Middle East Dividends, and the relative value nature of the rebalance repositioned weight in underperforming areas,” according to WIsdomTree.
At the country level, Egypt and Morocco were pared within GULF. Earlier this year, Russell Investments demoted Egypt to frontier status while S&P Dow Jones Indices levied the same demotion on Morocco last week. Those countries combine for 12.6% of GULF’s weight. [S&P Demotes Morocco to Frontier Status]
Data from WisdomTree show that countries that underperformed following GULF’s previous rebalance now account for 64.5% of the underlying index, up from 61.8% while outperforming countries saw their weight reduced to 35.5% from 38.2%.
GULF, which charges 0.88% per year, has nearly doubled in size this year, pulling in $25.1 million of its $56.1 million in assets under management since the start of 2014.
WisdomTree Middle East Dividend Fund