Currency hedged exchange traded funds are among this year’s top asset gathers. In fact, the two best asset-gathering ETFs and three of the top six are currency hedged funds. With that and diverging monetary policies between the U.S. and other major developed markets, it is not surprising that ETF issuers are bolstering their currency hedged lineups.
BlackRock’s (NYSE: BLK) iShares unit, the world’s largest ETF issuer, did just that today, unveiling a massive 11-ETF addition to its already thriving currency hedged suite. With the debut of the 11 new currency hedged ETFs Tuesday, iShares now offers 16 funds that seek to damp currency risk.
The new currency hedged ETFs from iShares include eight single-country funds. Included in that group are five first-of-their-kind ETFs. For example, the iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Australia ETF (NYSEArca: HAUD) is the first Australia-specific currency hedged offering to list in the U.S. The same goes for the iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Canada ETF (NYSEArca: HEWC), iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Italy ETF (NYSEArca: HEWI), iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Spain ETF (NYSEArca: HEWP) and the iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Switzerland ETF (NYSEArca: HEWL).
iShares also introduced the iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Mexico (NYSEArca: HEWW), iShares Currency Hedged MSCI South Korea ETF (NYSEArca: HEWY) and the iShares Currency Hedged MSCI United Kingdom ETF (NYSEArca: HEWU).
Those funds will compete with offerings from Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management and WisdomTree (NasdaqGS: WETF). Prior to 2015, ex-Japan single-country currency hedged ETFs had struggled to attract assets, but that has changed led by massive asset growth for the Deutsche X-trackers MSCI Germany Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEArca: DBGR), WisdomTree Germany Hedged Equity Fund (NasdaqGM: DXGE) and the iShares Currency Hedged MSCI Germany ETF (NYSEArca: HEWG). [Investors Love Germany Hedged ETFs]