stock exchange

ISHARES MSCI CHILE INVESTABLE MARKET INDEX FUND $34.71 (New York symbol ECH; buy or sell through brokers) is an ETF that aims to track the MSCI Chile Investable Market Index, which consists of stocks that mainly trade on the Santiago Stock Exchange.

The fund’s top holdings are Enersis SA (electricity), 10.5%; Empresas Copec SA (conglomerate), 8.6%; Empresa Nacional de Electricidad (electricity), 7.8%; Empresas CMPC (pulp and paper), 6.4%; S.A.C.I. Falabella (retail), 6.3%; Banco Santander Chile (banking), 6.0%; Banco de Chile, 5.0%; Colbun SA (utility), 4.4%; Cencosud SA (retailer), 4.2%; and LATAM Airlines, 3.4%.

The ETF’s industry breakdown consists of Utilities, 30.7%; Financials, 19.3%; Materials, 12.3%; Consumer Staples, 9.4%; Energy, 8.4%; Consumer Discretionary, 7.8%; Industrials, 6.8%; Telecommunications, 2.6%; and Information Technology, 2.0%.

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Our investing tips will show you how you improve your chances of striking it rich with your new business.

BMW AG, 86.50 euros, symbol BMW on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Shares outstanding: 602.0 million; Market cap: 55.7 billion euros; www.bmw.com), makes cars, motorcycles and engines. It was founded in 1916 and is headquartered in Munich, Germany. BMW’s shares have dropped lately, along with slowing car sales in China. The stock rose as high as 122.60 euros in March 2015. German carmakers are among the largest foreign manufacturers in China, accounting for nearly one in four of all new cars sold there. They produced almost four million vehicles in the country last year, seven times more than a decade ago, and German auto output in China has increased 29% a year on average since 2005—even growing at the peak of the 2008 financial crisis....

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 highquality stocks. Here’s a look at five international ETFs:...

We have changed our recommendations on these four ETFs from buy to hold: ISHARES MSCI BRAZIL INDEX FUND $23.94 (New York symbol EWZ) is an ETF that’s designed to track the Brazilian stock market. ISHARES CHINA LARGE-CAP ETF $34.67 (New York symbol FXI) 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....

Palo Alto Networks Inc., $164.22, symbol PANW on New York (Shares outstanding: 83.7 million; Market cap: $13.7 billion, www.paloaltonetworks.com), designs and makes Internet equipment and software, called firewalls, for protecting computers and mobile devices from online attacks. Instead of imposing blanket bans on entire networks, Palo Alto’s systems analyze traffic and let network administrators control users’ access to certain websites and applications. Over 24,000 businesses in 140 countries use the company’s products. Palo Alto first sold shares to the public at $42.00 and began trading on New York on July 19, 2012....

VANGUARD FTSE EMERGING MARKETS ETF $37.85 (New York symbol VWO; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) Emerging Index, which is made up of common stocks of companies in developing countries. The fund’s MER is just 0.15%.

The Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF’s top holdings include Taiwan Semiconductor (Taiwan: computer chips), Tencent Holdings (China: Internet), China Mobile, China Construction Bank, Naspers Ltd. (South Africa: media), Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, Hon Hai Precision Industry (Taiwan: electronics), Petroleo Brasileiro (Brazil: oil and gas) and Ping An Insurance Group of China.

The $65.4-billion fund’s breakdown by country is as follows: China, 28.4%; Taiwan, 14.2%; India, 11.6%; South Africa, 9.3%; Brazil, 8.8%; Mexico, 5.1%; Russia, 4.4%; Malaysia, 4.1%; Thailand, 2.6%; Indonesia, 2.4%; Philippines, 1.8%; Poland, 1.7%; Turkey, 1.7%; and others, 3.9%.

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Because it’s always important to diversify beyond Canada, a look at two Vanguard ETFs that offer a low-fee way to achieve diversification.

Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group is one of the world’s largest investment management companies. In all, it administers almost $3 trillion U.S. in 170 mutual funds. Vanguard, which went into business in 1975, offers low-fee index mutual funds. Generally speaking, Canadians can’t buy units of mutual funds that are registered in the U.S., because they aren’t registered with provincial securities commissions. For that matter, some Canadian funds aren’t available in all provinces. Canadians can, however, buy Vanguard exchange traded funds (ETFs) that trade on stock exchanges. We don’t recommend all of Vanguard’s ETFs, but here are two we do see as low-fee buys....

With today’s low interest rates, investors are paying more attention to dividend yields (a company’s total annual dividends paid per share divided by the current stock price). Dividend-paying companies are responding by doing their best to maintain, or even increase, their payouts.

In fact, dividends can now contribute up to a third of your long-term investment returns, without even considering the tax-cutting effects of the dividend tax credit (see below).

In addition, dividends are far more reliable than capital gains. A stock that pays a $1 dividend this year will probably do the same next year. It may even increase its dividend payment.

Canadian dividends give you tax advantages

Taxpayers who hold dividend-paying Canadian stocks get an additional bonus: their dividends can be eligible for the dividend tax credit in Canada.

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