Yesterday we saw some opportunely timed options trading in the largest German Equity ETF, EWG (iShares MSCI Germany, Expense Ratio 0.48%) involving July 29 calls in decent size, and sure enough Germany is rallying considerably this morning, gapping up more than 2%. EWG has $6.8 billion in assets under management and has pulled in about $140 million in new assets in the trailing one month period.
HEWG (iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Germany, Expense Ratio 0.53%) is the second largest fund in the category, with $1.7 billion in AUM and also rather impressive one month asset growth, having attracted more than $180 million in new assets via creation activity lately.
WisdomTree is also involved in the Germany Equity space from a “Currency Hedged” standpoint with DXGE (Germany Hedged Equity, Expense Ratio 0.48%) which has about $330 million in AUM, as is Deutsche Bank with DBGR (db MSCI Germany Hedged Equity, Expense Ratio 0.45%, $220 million in AUM).
In terms of “Un-hedged” funds in this category, FGM (First Trust Germany AlphaDEX, Expense Ratio 0.80%) also has a presence with an asset base of about $237 million.
During yesterday’s session when we saw call activity in EWG, the fund had actually plunged through its 200 day MA for the first time since March, but the stay there was very short lived, and it is evident in the snap-back strength this morning in the product and rippling throughout related linked ETFs.
The top holdings in EWG are likely rather familiar to most, as they are companies that are viewed as multi-nationals such as Bayer AG (9.72% weighting), Daimler AG (7.47%), BASF SE (7.04%), Siemens AG (6.91%), and Allianz SE (5.94%).