After the Brexit vote, the British pound sterling has been depreciating but large-cap exporters are capitalizing on the weaker currency, lifting currency-hedged United Kingdom exchange traded funds.
Year-to-date, the Deutsche X-Trackers MSCI United Kingdom Hedged Equity ETF (NYSEArca: DBUK) increased 8.9%, iShares Currency Hedged MSCI United Kingdom ETF (NYSEArca: HEWU) gained 9.5% and WisdomTree United Kingdom Hedged Equity Fund (NasdaqGM: DXPS) advanced 13.5%.
Meanwhile, the iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF (NYSEArca: EWU), a non-currency-hedged U.K. ETF, fell 1.8% and the CurrencyShares British Pound Sterling Trust (NYSEArca: FXB) declined 11.0% so far this year.
[related_stories]The British pound sterling was trading around $1.3144 Tuesday, compared to a pre-Brexit vote high of $1.4877.
The depreciating GBP has helped support large-cap U.K. companies and pushed the benchmark FTSE 100 index to 12-month highs.
“The FTSE 100 has 50 per cent of sales/profits outside of Europe and 70 per cent outside of the UK, weaker GBP should mean higher earnings per share for UK plc,” Jonathan Stubbs of the Citi bank’s equity team told the Financial Times.