etf

SPDR S&P 500 ETF $119.95 (New York symbol SPY; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com) holds the stocks in the S&P 500 Index, which consists of 500 major U.S. stocks that are chosen based on their market cap, liquidity and industry group. The index’s highest-weighted stocks are Exxon Mobil, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Apple, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Chevron, General Electric, Coca Cola, Google and AT&T. The fund’s expenses are just 0.10% of its assets....

ISHARES DOW JONES CANADA SELECT DIVIDEND INDEX FUND $20.26 (Toronto symbol XDV; buy or sell through a broker; 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 assets. The fund’s MER is 0.50%. It yields 5.3%. The fund’s top holdings are CIBC, 8.0%; Bank of Montreal, 6.4%; National Bank, 5.7%; TD Bank, 5.6%; Telus, 5.2%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 4.6%; Manitoba Telecom, 4.5%; IGM Financial, 4.2%; Royal Bank, 4.0%; Enbridge, 3.5%, TMX Group, 3.5%; and TransCanada Corp., 3.3%. The fund holds 60.1% of its assets in financial stocks. Utilities are next, at 23.0%. 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....

GUGGENHEIM ALPHASHARES CHINA SMALL CAP INDEX ETF $32.72 (New York Exchange symbol HAO; buy or sell through brokers; www.guggenheimfunds.com) is the new name of Claymore/AlphaShares China Small Cap Index ETF. Guggenheim Partners bought Claymore Group in 2009, and has renamed the Claymore funds. This ETF aims to track the AlphaShares China Small Cap Index. This index is made up of all investable Chinese stocks with market caps between $200 million and $1.5 billion. The $496.6-million fund’s top holdings are PICC Property & Casualty, 2.6%; Focus Media Holdings, 2.1%; Air China, 2.0%; Weichai Power Co., 1.9%; Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, 1.8%; Cosco Pacific, 1.8%; Brilliance China Automotive Holdings, 1.8%; Shandong Wiegao Group Medical, 1.6%; Sohu.com, 1.6%; and ZTE Corp., 1.5%....

SPDR S&P CHINA ETF $83.37 (New York Exchange symbol GXC; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com), is an exchange-traded fund that aims to track the S&P China BMI Index. This index is made up of all of the publicly traded Chinese stocks that are available to foreign investors. Right now, SPDR S&P China ETF holds 147 stocks. The $730.3-million fund’s top holdings are: China Construction Bank, 7.4%; China Mobile, 6.8%; Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, 5.2%; Bank of China, 4.4%; China Life Insurance, 4.4%; CNOOC Ltd., 4.2%; Baidu Inc., 4.0%; PetroChina, 3.4%; Tencent Holdings Ltd., 2.6%; and China Petroleum & Chemical, 2.2%. The fund’s breakdown by industry is as follows: Financials, 33.6%; Oil and Gas, 14.5%; Information Technology, 11.4%; Telecommunication Services, 8.9%; Consumer Discretionary, 7.2%; Basic Materials, 5.6%; Consumer Staples, 5.2%; Utilities, 2.0%; and Health Care, 1.0%....

The long-term outlook for China, and Chinese stocks, is bright. And one of the best ways for investors to tap into that growth is through low-fee exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Here are two Chinese ETF recommendations. One invests in all of the publicly traded Chinese stocks available to foreign investors. The other holds small-cap Chinese stocks. SPDR S&P CHINA ETF $83.37 (New York Exchange symbol GXC; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com), is an exchange-traded fund that aims to track the S&P China BMI Index. This index is made up of all of the publicly traded Chinese stocks that are available to foreign investors. Right now, SPDR S&P China ETF holds 147 stocks....

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may have a place in your portfolio. That’s because, unlike many other financial innovations, they don’t load you up with heavy management fees, or tie you down with high redemption charges if you decide to get out of them. Instead, they give you a low-cost, flexible, convenient alternative to mutual funds. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. Prices are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You’ll have to pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell ETFs. However, ETFs’ low management fees still give them a cost advantage over most conventional mutual funds. As well, shares are only added or removed when the underlying index changes. As a result of this low turnover, you won’t incur the regular capital-gains bills generated by the yearly distributions most conventional mutual funds pay out to unitholders....

BLDRS Emerging Markets 50 ADR Index Fund, $46.88, symbol ADRE on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 14.5 million; Market cap: $678.3 million), is an exchange-traded fund that aims to track the Bank of New York Emerging Markets 50 ADR Index. The fund invests in the largest emerging-market American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) trading on U.S. stock exchanges by market capitalization. An American Depositary Receipt is an investment unit for foreign companies that trade on a U.S. stock market. These units can represent fractions of shares, whole shares, or multiple shares in the foreign company. The fund’s top holdings are: Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Brazil: oil and gas), Vale SA (Brazil: mining), America Movil SAB de CV (Latin America: wireless), Itau Unibanco Holding SA (Brazil: banking). Taiwan Semiconductor (Taiwan: computer chips), China Mobile (China: wireless), Banco Bradesco (Brazil: banking) and Infosys Technologies (India: information technologies)....

iShares MSCI Israel Capped Investable Market Index Fund, $56.35, symbol EIS on New York (Shares outstanding: 2.4 million; Market cap: $135.2 million), is an exchange-traded fund that aims to track the MSCI Israel Capped Investable Market Index. The weight of any one company is capped at 24% of the index’s market capitalization. iShares MSCI Israel Capped Investable Market Index Fund’s top holdings are Teva Pharmaceutical, 21.3%; Israel Chemicals, 9.6%; Bank Leumi Le-Israel, 8.3%; Bezeq Israeli Telecom, 6.3%; Bank Hapoalim, 5.3%; Nice Systems, 3.1%; The Israel Corp., 2.9%; Partner Communications, 2.9%; Cellcom Israel, 2.3%; and Elbit Systems, 2.3%. The fund’s industry breakdown is as follows: Financials, 27.3%; Health Care, 22%; Materials, 15.2%; Telecommunication Services, 11.8%; Industrials, 8.3%; Information Technology, 6.9%; Energy, 3.4%; Consumer Staples, 3.4%; and Consumer Discretionary, 1.5%....

VANGUARD GROWTH ETF $55.16 (New York symbol VUG; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the MSCI U.S. Prime Market Growth Index, a broadly diversified index that mainly consists of stocks of large U.S. companies. The fund has an MER of just 0.14%. The $15.2-billion fund’s top holdings are Microsoft, IBM, Apple Inc., Cisco Systems, Wal-Mart Stores, Google Inc., Exxon Mobil, Oracle Corp., Philip Morris International and PepsiCo. Vanguard Growth ETF is broken down by economic segment as follows: Information Technologies (32.9%), Consumer Discretionary (14.3%), Consumer Staples (12.9%), Health Care (10.6%), Industrials (10.3%), Energy (8.1%), Financials (5.1%), Materials (4.6%), Telecommunication Services (0.9%) and Utilities (0.3%)....

VANGUARD EMERGING MARKETS ETF $45.24 (New York symbol VWO; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which is made up of common stocks of companies located in emerging markets around the world. The fund has an MER of 0.27%. The fund’s top holdings are China Mobile (China: wireless), Gazprom (Russia: gas utility), Samsung Electronics (South Korea: electronics), Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, America Movil SAB de CV (Latin America: wireless), Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Brazil: oil and gas), China Construction Bank, Vale SA (Brazil: mining), Itau Unibanco Holding SA (Brazil: banking) and Hon Hai Precision Industry (Taiwan: electronics). The $45-billion Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF’s breakdown by country is as follows: China (18.7%), Brazil (16.0%), South Korea (13.4%), Taiwan (10.6%), India (8.0%), South Africa (7.4%), Russia (6.4%), Mexico (4.3%), Malaysia (3.1%), Indonesia (2.4%), Chile (1.8%), Turkey (1.8%), Thailand (1.7%), Poland (1.5%), Peru (0.7%), Colombia (0.6%), Philippines (0.5%), Czech Republic (0.4%), Hungary (0.4%) and Egypt (0.3%)....