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ISHARES MSCI CANADA INDEX FUND $24.16 (New York symbol EWC; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) holds the stocks in the Morgan Stanley Capital International Canada Index. The fund has a 0.48% MER and yields 2.4%. The index’s top holdings are Royal Bank, 7.9%; TD Bank, 7.1%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 5.4%; CN Railway, 4.2%; Suncor Energy, 4.0%; Bank of Montreal, 3.6%; Enbridge, 3.3%; Canadian Natural Resources, 2.8%; and CIBC, 2.8%. If you want to own a Canadian index fund, you should buy the iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF (see previous page). You’ll pay about a third of the management fees....

These six ETFs hold mostly blue chip, widely traded stocks on Canadian and U.S. exchanges. All of them mirror, or track, the performance of major stock market indexes. That’s opposed to narrower indexes focused on, say, resources or themes such as solar power or biotech. Of course, you pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell these ETFs. But their low management fees give them a cost advantage over most mutual funds. Below we update our advice on all six—five buys and one we don’t recommend....

ISHARES CHINA LARGE-CAP ETF $33.03 (New York symbol FXI; buy or sell through brokers) is an exchange traded fund that aims to track the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) China 50 Index, which is made up of the 50 largest, most-liquid Chinese stocks. Top holdings include Tencent Holdings, China Mobile, China Construction Bank, Bank of China and Ping An Insurance. The ETF has an MER of 0.74%. Chinese stocks are down sharply since last summer. National leader Xi Jinping seems focused on shoring up the Communist party and the Chinese stock market, rather than strengthening the Chinese economy. Meanwhile China still has strong long-term growth potential, but needs to get its economy back on track....

ISHARES CHINA LARGE-CAP ETF $33.03 (New York symbol FXI; buy or sell through brokers) is an exchange traded fund that aims to track the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) China 50 Index, which is made up of the 50 largest, most-liquid Chinese stocks. Top holdings include Tencent Holdings, China Mobile, China Construction Bank, Bank of China and Ping An Insurance. The ETF has an MER of 0.74%. Chinese stocks are down sharply since last summer. National leader Xi Jinping seems focused on shoring up the Communist party and the Chinese stock market, rather than strengthening the Chinese economy. Meanwhile China still has strong long-term growth potential, but needs to get its economy back on track....

ISHARES CANADIAN SHORT-TERM BOND INDEX ETF $28.47 (Toronto symbol XSB; buy or sell through brokers) mirrors the performance of the DEX Short-Term Bond Index. This index consists of a range of investment-grade federal, provincial, municipal and corporate bonds with one- to five-year terms to maturity. The fund holds 437 bonds with an average term to maturity of 2.94 years. The bonds in the index are 65.0% government and 35.0% corporate. The fund’s MER is 0.28%. The iShares Canadian Short-Term Bond Index Fund yields 2.4%, but this high yield is due to the fact that some of the fund’s bonds pay above-market interest rates. As a result, they trade above their face value. When these bonds mature, holders will only get the bonds’ face value, meaning the portfolio will incur predictable capital losses. These losses will offset some of the appeal of the above-market yields....

ISHARES CANADIAN UNIVERSE BOND INDEX ETF $31.87 (Toronto symbol XBB; buy or sell through brokers) mirrors the performance of the Canadian Universe Bond Index. The 957 bonds in the portfolio have an average term to maturity of 10.26 years. The fund’s MER is 0.33%. The bonds in the index are 72.0% government and 28.0% corporate. The fund yields 2.8%, compared to the Short-Term Bond Fund’s 2.4%. Its yield to maturity is 1.96%, 0.75 percentage points above the Short-Term Fund. That reflects the added risk of long-term bonds....

The Bank of Canada is unlikely to raise interest rates any time soon. That’s because low prices for oil and other commodities will likely continue to offset higher exports due to a low Canadian dollar, as well as increased government spending. Even so, the long-term outlook is for higher interest rates. That’s because heavy deficit spending and the expansion of the money supply in the past few years make higher inflation more likely. We continue to advise against investing in bonds right now. That’s because today’s low interest rates make bonds unattractive, and rising rates would push down their future value....

BMO MSCI All Country World High Quality Index ETF, $23.57, symbol ZGQ on Toronto (Units outstanding: 1.4 million; Market cap: $33.0 million; www.etfs.bmo.com), aims to replicate the performance of the MSCI All Country World High Quality Index. Bank of Montreal launched the ETF on November 5, 2014. The underlying MSCI (Morgan Stanley Country Index) was formed in 1995. The BMO MSCI All Country World High Quality Index ETF focuses on the U.S. (68.2% of assets). Its next highest weightings are the U.K. at 8.5%, Switzerland at 6.3% and Denmark at 2.1%. The ETF’s MER is 0.52%, and it yields 1.2%. The fund mostly holds large-capitalization global companies: Apple, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Exxon Mobil Corp., Roche Holding AG, Nestle SA, Procter & Gamble, Alphabet Inc. and Home Depot....

>ISHARES S&P/TSX 60 INDEX FUND $20.64 (Toronto symbol XIU; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) is a good low-fee way to buy the top stocks on the TSX. The units are made up of stocks that represent the S&P/TSX 60 Index, which consists of the 60 largest, most heavily traded stocks on the exchange. Ex
The index mostly consists of high-quality companies. However, it must ensure that all sectors are represented, so it holds a few we wouldn’t include.

The index’s top holdings are Royal Bank, 8.1%; TD Bank, 7.1%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 6.0%; Suncor Energy, 4.3%; CN Railway, 4.0%; Valeant Pharmaceuticals, 4.0%; Bank of Montreal, 3.7%; Canadian Natural Resources, 3.4%; Enbridge, 3.0%; Manulife Financial, 3.0%; BCE, 2.9%; CIBC, 2.8%; TransCanada Corporation, 2.7%; Potash Corp., 2.5%; CP Rail, 2.1%; and Goldcorp, 1.9%.
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Two international ETFs offers low MERs and exposure to strong foreign markets through tax-efficient, high-quality portfolios.