EWP, the largest Spain ETF, currently trades just over $32. Open interest in EWP’s February $32 strike puts is more than eight times the open interest in the calls with the same strike, according to Option Monster.
EWP has been hampered by, among other factors, declines in shares of Banco Santander (NYSE: SAN). Share of the Spanish banking giant are off 22.2% over the past 90 days and some analyst see a dividend cut in the bank’s future. EWP allocates 21.7% of its weight to Banco Santander, about 1,000 basis points more than the ETF devotes to Telefonica (NYSE: TEF), its second-largest holding. [Santander Slump Slams Spain ETF]
Puts on the Italy ETF outnumbered calls by 2.73-to-1, and the ratio for the Spanish fund was 1.88-to-1, according to Bloomberg. Last year, investors added $220.2 million to EWI and $968 to EWP, but departures from the ETFs have recently accelerated. In the fourth quarter, a combined $900.4 million was pulled from EWP and EWI.
iShares MSCI Italy Capped ETF
