MARKET VECTORS VIETNAM ETF $18.95(New York symbol VNM; buy or sell through brokers) holdsshares of Vietnamese companies or foreign firms thatget a significant amount of their revenue fromVietnam.
The ETF’s top 10 holdings are Vietin CommercialBank, 7.9%; Vincom Corp. (real estate), 7.9%;Baoviet Holdings (finance and insurance), 7.3%; JSCBank, 7.3%; PetroVietnam Fertilizer and Chemical,5.4%; Minor International (a Thailand-based firmwith hotels and fast-food restaurants in Vietnam),4.9%; Charoen Pokphand Foods (a Thailand-basedfood conglomerate), 4.6%; Gamuda Bhd (a Malaysiabasedconstruction group), 4.6%; Premier Oil (aU.K.-based producer with stakes in the huge CuuLong basin off southern Vietnam), 4.5%; and Oil &Natural Gas Corp. (an India-based oil and gascompany), 4.0%.
Market Vectors Vietnam ETF’s industry breakdownis as follows: Financials, 45.9%; Energy,21.5%; Industrials, 10.6%; Materials, 7.9%; ConsumerDiscretionary, 6.6%; Consumer Staples, 4.7%;and Utilities, 2.9%. Its expense ratio is 0.76%.
The fund cuts its risk by investing part of its assetsindirectly in Vietnam by buying shares of firms thatare based outside the country but still do businessthere. That’s a better approach than adding thinlytraded or illiquid shares of smaller Vietnamese firms.
Investing in Vietnam entails above-average politicalrisk. Still, the long-term outlook for the country’seconomy is positive. Vietnam is also making steadyprogress on political and economic reforms.
Market Vectors Vietnam ETF is a buy foraggressive investors.
