Six international ETFs: 4 buys, 2 holds

Article Excerpt

We think conservative investors can hold up to 10% of their portfolios in foreign stocks. One way to do that is to buy carefully chosen exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that have an overseas focus. The best ETFs continue to offer very low management fees and well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of highquality stocks. Here’s a look at four international ETFs we see as buys, and two we feel you should hang on to: ISHARES MSCI EMERGING MARKETS INDEX FUND $37.36 (New York symbol EEM; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The fund’s geographic breakdown includes China, 26.1%; South Korea, 14.7%; Taiwan, 12.0%; India, 8.1%; Brazil, 8.0%; South Africa, 6.6%; Russia, 4.2%; Mexico, 3.4%; Indonesia, 2.5%; Malaysia, 2.5%; Thailand, 2.3%; and the Philippines, 1.2%. Its top holdings are Samsung Electronics (South Korea), 4.1%; Tencent Holdings (China: Internet), 3.6%; Taiwan Semiconductor (computer chips), 3.5%; Alibaba Group (China: e-commerce), 2.7%; Naspers (South Africa: media and Internet), 1.7%; China Mobile, 1.7%; China Construction Bank, 1.5%;…