“This shouldn’t put off the long term investor, but its good practice to be aware of the currency risks, at least in the near term. The fund has 6.8 million shares outstanding, is marginable and has a reasonably good 20 day average volume of over 77,000 shares per trading session. The fund is passively managed and management fees are slight higher than the industry average 0.44%, totaling 0.48%,” according to a Seeking Alpha article on EWN.
Eurozone markets will stand to benefit and see exports rise as the euro currency continues to depreciate, making it cheaper for foreign markets to buy the European goods. Among the largest excess exporters, Netherlands and Germany rank among the top Eurozone countries. EWN allocates over 31.4% of its weight to consumer staples stocks, a sector that is highly correlated to the favorable export trend.
The comparison of EWN to the Switzerland and Belgium ETFs is relevant because like those ETFs, EWN features a large weight to the consumer staples sector, which has been a solid performer as of late. EWN has outperformed the comparable Switzerland ETF this year but has lagged the rival Belgium fund. [Super Staples ETFs]
iShares MSCI Netherlands ETF
