76 ETFs For Foreign Stock Exposure

26 July 2009

Many people are looking for various ways to invest in foreign companies. Whether they’ve lost faith in American companies, want to hedge or simply want some diversity, ETFs can be an easy answer to eachieve this. I’ve listed 76 ETFs that provide you exposure to the stocks of certain countries, groups of countries or the world as a whole. Some things to remember:

Many countries are highly dependent on a particular sector. For example if you’re buying a Russian ETF in many ways you are buying a lot of exposure to energy as that country is highly dependent on energy income.
Many of these funds have run up tremendously in the previous few months.
Some of these funds are not particularly liquid.
Many of these funds have high fees associated with them.
Each of these funds implements their exposure in different ways, be sure to read the prospectus.
This list is far from exhaustive, although it was exhausting to compile.

My summary of all this is: Read the Prospectus, Read the Prospectus, Read the Prospectus. Make sure you know what you’re actually buying if you buy one of these ETFs. I’m not recommending or endorsing any of them, I’m just compiling some resources to help you start your research.

Single Country ETFs

If you’re looking to roughly match the results of another single country here are some ETFs for some specific countries. Bear in mind that these don’t all necessarily track just the country’s most popular stock market index. They can track other indexes or even subsets of those companies and may balance them in a variety of ways so be sure you understand exactly what they invest in before you buy the ETF. Many of these funds are limited by market capitalization as well as particular country, once again be sure to read the prospectus.

Austria – EWO
Australia – EWA
Belgium – EWK
Brazil – EWZ, BRF
Canada – EWC
China – FXI,PGJ, HAO and GXC
Chile – ECH
France – EWQ
Germany - EWG
India - EPI, PIN
Indonesia – IDX
Israel - EIS
Italy – EWI
Japan – EWJ, PJO, SCJ
Malaysia – EWM
Mexico – EWW
Netherlands – EWN
Russia – RSX
Singapore – EWS
South Africa – EZA
South Korea – EWY
Spain – EWP
Sweden – EWD
Switzerland – EWL
Taiwan – EWT
Thailand – THD
Turkey – TUR

Regions and Groups

These are not individual countries, but groups of them.

Africa – AFK
Asia – AIA, IFAS, AAXJ
Europe – IFEU, EIV, DFE, PEF
Gulf States – MES, GULF
Latin America – ILF
North America – IFNA
United Kingdom – EWU

Emerging Markets

This list is for emerging market specific funds that are not purely regional.

BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) – BKF, BIK, EEB, DEM
General – GMM, EEM, PXH
Small Cap - EWX, DGS

Global and Non-US Sectors

These are worldwide market sectors, or worldwide market sectors excluding the US.

Consumer Discretionary – GXI, IPD
Consumer Staples – KXI, IPS
Energy – IXC, IPW
Financials – IXG, IPF
Healthcare – IXJ, IRY
Industrials – EXI, IPN
Materials – MXI, IRV
Technology – IXN, IPK
Utilities - JXI, IPU
Telecommunications – IXP, IST

Feel free to suggest more and I will keep adding to this list.

Personal Finance And Investing

26 July 2009