Investing in China: Which ETF You Choose Is Key
Naturally, FXI and EWH are not the only options for investing in China; there are in fact more ETF choices available for the country than for any other emerging market. Some of these alternative funds are beating the two dominant China ETFs by a hefty performance margin. For example, the PowerShares Golden Dragon Halter USX China ETF (PGJ) is up 65.6 percent in the last year vs. returns of 45.13 percent and 54 percent for FXI and EWH, respectively. PGJ has less than 10% of its portfolio invested in financials, which could make it the go-to play for investors concerned about the health of the Chinese banking system.
PGJ's top holdings include such volatile names as Yanzhou Coal Mining (YZC) and the Aluminum Corp. of China. In the past year, Yanzhou has more than tripled in value, while Aluminum Corp. of China (ACH) is up nearly 70 percent.
The SPDR S&P China (GXC) is another ETF offering more diversification than FXI. With 150 holdings, it splits the difference on financials exposure between FXI and PGJ while capturing a wide spectrum of the Chinese economy. As a result, it is often able to pare its losses more in market downturns.
Eoin Treacy's view A number of the funds mentioned in this
piece are new entries to the market and have only a few months of price history
but all can now be found in the Chart Library. While choosing the right ETF
is an important decision it pales in comparison to the importance of picking
the correct market to invest in. Different ETFs attempting to track a market
will outperform one another by a few percent but if one were to miss investing
in the right sector entirely the difference in performance to one's portfolio
would be much greater.
The PowerShares Golden Dragon Halter
USX China, SPDR S&P China, iShares
Hong Kong and iShares FTSE/Xinhua
China 25 have all found support in the region of their 200-day moving averages
and would need to sustain moves below the most recent reaction lows to question
potential for further higher to lateral ranging.