We do not frequently cover individual European country ETFs in this segment, allowing for the coverage when there is some level of trading in one or more products that may be of interest to institutional traders and asset managers.
Such is the case today in EWL (iShares MSCI Switzerland Capped, Expense Ratio 0.49%) which has tacked on nearly $400 million in recent sessions via creation flows.
The fund is a seasoned ETF veteran, having debuted way back in March of 1996 when I was a sophomore in college and quite frankly did not have an understanding what ETFs were at the time yet, and the fund tracks the MSCI Switzerland Index, with top sector weightings toward Health Care (31%), Financial Services (20%), and Consumer Staples (19%).
Top individual holdings in the fund are Nestle SA (16.49%), Novartis AG (15.21%), and Roche Holding AG (12.53%), and one can see that >44% of the overall portfolio is spread across only three individual equity names.
The fourth highest weighted holding UBS Group AG only carries a 4.88% weighting, which is a large drop-off from the number three weighted Roche Holding AG, demonstrative of how the market caps in Switzerland stack up across various companies.
While Switzerland is of course European Equity based in terms of geography, the country is not part of the European Monetary Union and it is worth watching the Swiss Franc currency itself as well as EWL, visible through FXF (CurrencyShares Swiss Franc Trust, Expense Ratio 0.40%).
iShares MSCI Switzerland Capped ETF
For more information on Street One ETF market commentary and ETF trade execution/liquidity services, contact Paul Weisbruch at pweisbruch@streetonefinancial.com
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