Regarding emerging markets exchange traded funds, one of this year’s most prominent themes has been investors’ affinity for ETFs tracking China’s A-shares, the stocks trading on mainland exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Until the Deutsche X-trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares ETF (NYSEArca: ASHR) debuted in November 2013, investors had to rely on ETFs that only offered synthetic exposure to A-shares. ASHR’s success has since kicked off a wave of enthusiasm for A-shares ETFs that shows few signs of abating.
Investors added $34.6 million to ASHR last week “to complete the longest stretch of asset gains since its November 2013 debut, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. More than $300 million has been put into the fund since the beginning of last month as it soared 35 percent,” reports Belinda Cao for Bloomberg.
Over the past month stocks in Shanghai have outpaced the world’s 92 other major equity bourses. Recent performances by A-shares ETFs might imply that their rally is in the late innings, but the 24.6% three-month for the Shanghai Composite indicates otherwise. [More to Come for A-Shares ETFs]
While single-country ETFs tracking emerging markets from Brazil to Russia have languished this year, A-shares have been delivered notable out-performance. Year-to-date, ASHR, the KraneShares Bosera MSCI China A-Shares ETF (NYSEArca: KBA) and the Market Vectors ChinaAMC A-Share ETF (NYSEArca: PEK) have returned an average of 47%.
That is good enough to rank each among the best performing international ETFs and the 10 ETFs of any type. [Another A-Shares ETF Rally]