For instance, the WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEArca: HEDJ) focuses more on export-oriented sectors, which have delivered higher earnings growth on the weakened euro currency.
[related_stories]Export-oriented sectors, including consumer discretionary, industrials, health care, information technology and consumer staples, have delivered earnings growth that ranges from 2.6% per year to 4.5% per year and an average of 3.7% per year, Jeremy Schwartz, Director of Research for WisdomTree, said in a note. In contrast, financials, energy, materials, utilities and telecom have witnessed lackluster earnings in recent years.
Looking at HEDJ’s underlying holdings, the ETF includes 18.5% industrials, 18.1%, consumer discretionary, 17.7% consumer staples, 9.0% health care and 7.3% information technology.
HEDJ’s overweight positions in areas with positive earnings growth and underweight toward energy and financials have helped the WisdomTree ETF take a more quality bias and outperform the benchmark MSCI EMU Index and other funds that maintain an overweight position toward areas with weakened earnings growth.
For example, the iShares Currency Hedged MSCI EMU ETF (NYSEArca: HEZU), which tracks the USD hedged version of the MSCI EMU Index, is overweight financials at 18.0%, followed by industrials 14.4%, consumer discretionary 13.5%, consumer staples 11.4% and materials 8.2%.
HEZU and the MSCI EMU Index’s reliance on less export heavy sectors has dragged on their overall performance. HEDJ increased 4.1% year-to-date while HEZU gained 0.4%.