Canadian investors are notorious for their home bias, preferring to put their savings into domestic bank and utility stocks rather than prospects further afield. But with emerging markets driving an estimated two-thirds of the world’s economic growth – while also boasting younger demographics and carrying significantly less debt than most developed nations – the sector merits closer long-term attention, regardless of the United States’ volatile international trade policies.
A second route into emerging markets is to buy an ETF that tracks a country’s main stock-market index, such as India’s NIFTY 50, or an index covering numerous countries, such as BlackRock’s iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The iShares fund has a three-year return of 5.37 per cent and an MER of just 0.78 per cent.
In response to the U.S. trade war with China, for instance, mutual fund portfolio managers can reduce exposure to Chinese companies hurt by new tariffs and look for stocks of promising businesses in Vietnam that might benefit from the shifting trade patterns. Investors holding a passive ETF tied to a broad index, however, don’t have that flexibility.
A proliferation of new ETFs, listed on U.S. and Canadian exchanges, means investors can buy into specific sectors – such as Chinese internet stocks or Indian infrastructure plays – or choose funds based on stock valuations, volatility levels or dividend yields. David Kletz, a portfolio manager at Forstrong Global Asset Management Inc., describes these as “low-cost funds with an active tilt.”
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