Today we stick with a European Equity theme as we have been for the past week or so in this piece, specifically looking to the “Nordic” region as it is covered in ETFs. GXF (Global X FTSE Nordic Region, Expense Ratio 0.50%) debuted in August of 2009 and has managed to gather about $54.7 million in assets since inception.
The fund targets the FTSE Nordic 30 Index, and from a country standpoint has its highest weighting to Sweden (>50.3%) and Denmark (>24.3%), followed by lesser exposures to Finland (>13.7%) and Norway (11.54%).
From a single country standpoint in the Nordic region, those interested in the space should absolutely pay attention to the following funds: EDEN (iShares MSCI Denmark Capped Investable Market, Expense Ratio 0.53%), EWD (iShares MSCI Sweden, Expense Ratio 0.48%), EFNL (iShares MSCI Finland Capped, Expense Ratio 0.53%), as well as NORW (Global X MSCI Norway, Expense Ratio 0.50%) and ENOR (iShares MSCI Norway Capped Investable Market, Expense Ratio 0.53%).
From an asset size standpoint, EWD is the dominant force across these ETFs with approximately $324 million in current assets under management. It is followed by NORW with $74 million and EDEN which has approximately $49 million in AUM, ahead of the much smaller ENOR ($27 million) and EFNL ($18.5 million).
Year to date, a Nordic composite index like GXF has shown some out-performance relative to the more broadly defined “Europe Equity” space via say IEV (iShares Europe, Expense Ratio 0.60%) which tracks the S&P Europe 350 Index, and over a five year trailing period this out-performance is very pronounced (GXF has returned roughly double IEV during this time period).
Relative out-performance by its largest weighted member Sweden, certainly has not hurt matters. Among the top holdings within EWD that have been powering that market over the past five years include 1) Hennes & Mauritz AB Class B (10.22%), 2) Ericsson LM Tel (9.87%), 3) Nordea Bank AB (9.22%), 4) Svenska Handelsbanken Class A (5.98%), and 5) Swedbank AB Class A (5.53%).