etf

We think conservative investors could 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 offer very low management fees and well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of high quality stocks.

Here are six international ETFs we like:

ISHARES MSCI JAPAN INDEX FUND $10.60 (New York Exchange symbol EWJ; buy or sell through brokers; us.ishares.com) is an exchange traded fund that tries to match the return of the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Japan index.

The ETF’s top holdings include Toyota, 6.6%; Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, 3.0%; Honda Motor, 2.5%; Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, 2.1%; Softbank Corp., 1.9%; Mizuho Financial Group, 1.8%; Canon, 1.6%; Japan Tobacco, 1.5%; Takeda Pharmaceutical, 1.4%; and Hitachi, 1.3%.

The fund’s industry breakdown is as follows: Consumer Discretionary, 21.8%; Financials, 20.1%; Industrials, 18.9%; Information Technology, 10.7%; Consumer Staples, 6.5%; Health Care, 6.2%; Materials, 6.2%; Telecommunication Services, 4.7%; Utilities, 3.1%; and Energy, 1.3%.

iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund was launched on March 12, 1996....

ISHARES AUSTRALIA INDEX FUND $23.84 (New York symbol EWA; buy or sell through brokers) is an ETF that holds the 70 largest Australian stocks. Its MER is 0.50%.

The fund’s top holdings include BHP Billiton, 10.8%; Commonwealth Bank of Australia, 10.6%; Westpac Banking Corp., 8.9%; Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, 7.5%; National Australia Bank, 6.8%; Woolworths, 4.0%; Wesfarmers, 3.9%; CSL Ltd., 2.9%; Westfield Group, 2.4%; and Woodside Petroleum, 2.3%.

Australia benefits from its stable banking and political systems....

POWERSHARES QQQ ETF $70.39 (Nasdaq symbol QQQQ; buy or sell through brokers; www.invescopowershares- .com), formerly called Nasdaq 100 Trust Shares, holds stocks that represent the Nasdaq 100 Index. That index consists of the 100 largest shares on the Nasdaq exchange, based on market cap.

The Nasdaq 100 Index contains shares of companies in a number of major industries, including computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade and biotechnology. It does not contain financial companies. The fund’s expenses are about 0.20% of its assets.

The index’s highest-weighted stocks are Apple, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Google, Cisco Systems, Intel, Amazon.com, Oracle Corp., Comcast Corp. and Amgen.
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SPDR DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE ETF $146.74 (New York symbol DIA; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com) holds the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The fund’s top holdings are IBM, ExxonMobil, Chevron, 3M, Travelers Companies, McDonald’s, Johnson & Johnson, Caterpillar, United Technologies and Boeing. The fund’s expenses are about 0.17% of its assets.

SPDR Dow Jones ETF is a buy.
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ISHARES DOW JONES CANADA SELECT DIVIDEND INDEX FUND $22.02 (Toronto symbol XDV; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) holds 30 of the highest-yielding Canadian stocks. Its selections are based on dividend growth, yield and payout ratio. The weight of any one stock is limited to 10% of its assets. The fund’s MER is 0.50%. It yields 4.3%.

The fund’s top holdings are CIBC, 6.5%; Bonterra Energy, 6.4%; National Bank, 5.8%; TD Bank, 5.5%; Bank of Montreal, 5.3%; Telus Corp., 4.9%; BCE Inc., 4.4%; Royal Bank, 4.4%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 4.1%; and IGM Financial, 4.1%.

The fund holds 51.4% of its assets in financial stocks. The top Canadian finance stocks have sound prospects. However, if you invest in this ETF, be sure to adjust the rest of your portfolio so it won’t be overly concentrated in the financial sector.
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VANGUARD EMERGING MARKETS ETF $43.30 (New York symbol VWO; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the FTSE Emerging Transitions Index, which is made up of common stocks of companies located in developing countries around the world. The fund has an MER of just 0.18%.

Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF’s top holdings include Samsung Electronics (South Korea), China Mobile (China: wireless), Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Brazil: oil and gas), Taiwan Semiconductor (Taiwan: computer chips), Vale SA (Brazil: mining), Banco Bradesco (Brazil: banking), Gazprom (Russia: gas utility), China Construction Bank, Itau Unibanco Holding SA (Brazil: banking), Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and CNOOC Limited (China: oil and gas).

The $74.6-billion fund’s breakdown by country is as follows: China (18.6%), Brazil (14.3%), Taiwan (11.1%), India (8.1%), South Africa (8.1%), South Korea (7.7%), Russia (6.4%), Mexico (5.6%), Malaysia (4.1%), Indonesia (3.2%), Thailand (3.0%), Turkey (2.3%), Chile (2.2%), Poland (1.4%) and others (3.9%).
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VANGUARD GROWTH ETF $78.17 (New York symbol VUG; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the CRSP U.S. Large Cap Growth Index, a broadly diversified index that mainly consists of shares of large U.S. companies. The fund’s MER is just 0.10%.

The $27.0-billion Vanguard Growth ETF’s top holdings are Apple, IBM, Google, Coca-Cola, Philip Morris International, Oracle, Wal-Mart, Schlumberger, Qualcomm and Home Depot.

The fund’s breakdown by industry is as follows: Information Technology (27.2%), Consumer Discretionary (20.3%), Consumer Staples (12.5%), Industrials (12.3%), Health Care (11.5%), Financials (6.4%), Energy (6.0%), Materials (3.1%), Telecommunication Services (0.6%) and Utilities (0.1%).
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Most U.S. markets have risen lately, while Canada’s resource-heavy Toronto Stock Exchange has lagged. But as always, both remain subject to unexpected downturns. One way to profit from rising markets is to add exchange traded funds (ETFs) that track major stock indexes to your portfolio. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. Prices are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You must pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell ETFs, but their low management fees still give them a cost advantage over most mutual funds....

The ETF, or exchange traded fund, is the biggest advance for individual investors since the introduction of discount brokers. But keep in mind that ETFs are a limited-purpose investing tool. You might think of an ETF as a discount version of a mutual fund. Instead of actively managing the ETF’s portfolio, the fund operator generally manages the fund so that it mirrors the performance of a market index. This lets the operator charge an MER (management expense ratio) of as little as 0.1%, compared to an average MER on conventional mutual funds of 2.6%. Thanks to this fee discrepancy, ETFs automatically perform better than many actively managed mutual funds. That’s because few mutual funds beat the index by a wide enough margin to offset their MERs....

A: The Global X FTSE Norway 30 ETF, $15.81, symbol NORW on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 4.1 million; Market cap: $64.8 million; www.globalxfunds.com), aims to track the FTSE Norway Index, which represents the 30 largest, most liquid Norwegian stocks. The ETF has a 0.50% MER and yields 2.8%. The fund’s top 10 holdings are: Statoil ASA (oil and gas) at 16.8%; DNB Nor ASA (Norway’s largest financial services group), 12.6%; Telenor ASA (telecommunications), 10.0%; Seadrill (offshore deepwater drilling), 9.7%; Orkla ASA (a conglomerate that includes grocery products, real estate, hydroelectric power and financial services), 5.3%; Yara International (chemicals and fertilizer), 4.7%; Subsea 7 SA (underwater engineering and construction, including drilling platforms and pipelines), 4.2%; TGS Nopec Geophysical (technical services for the oil and gas industry), 3.6%; Norsk Hydro ASA (aluminum producer), 3.6%; and Schibsted AS (media conglomerate), 3.4%. The Global X FTSE Norway 30 ETF’s breakdown by industry is as follows: Energy (46.2%), Financials (14.5%), Telecommunication Services (9.9%), Materials (9.2%), Consumer Goods (8.7%), Industrials (4.4%), Consumer Services (3.3%), Health Care (1.1%), Technology (1.0%), Fishing (1.0%), Information Technology (0.5%) and Consumer Discretionary (0.3%)....