stock exchange

BOMBARDIER INC., Toronto symbols BBD.A $2.65 and BBD.B $2.63, plans to sell shares in its transportation division to the public. This business makes passenger railcars and accounts for 45% of Bombardier’s total revenue. The company expects to complete the sale in the fourth quarter of 2015. The new shares will mainly trade on Germany’s stock exchange because that’s where this business is based. Bombardier will hang on to a majority stake. Meanwhile, the company earned $170 million, or $0.09 a share, in the first quarter of 2015 (all amounts except share price in U.S. dollars). These figures exclude unusual items, such as costs related to its recent decision to suspend development of the Learjet 85 business jet. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.05 a share. They are also up 12.6% from $151 million, or $0.08 a share, a year earlier. Revenue gained 1.0%, to $4.40 billion from $4.35 billion....

We believe most investors could benefit from holding some foreign investments in their portfolios for added diversification. Still, investing internationally remains riskier than investing in North America. With stocks markets around the globe, you may face language barriers, uncertain investor-protection laws, and in some cases a less pronounced commitment to openness, fairness and other qualities we tend to take for granted in established markets. One of the best ways to make it easier to profit on foreign markets is with American Depositary Receipts (ADRs). 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. ADRs can help you simplify your international investing by letting you buy foreign shares on U.S. exchanges without the complications of buying or selling on a foreign exchange, in a foreign currency....

ISHARES CHINA LARGE-CAP ETF $51.98 (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. All of the companies in the index trade on the Hong Kong exchange. Some also trade as American depositary receipts (ADRs) on New York. The fund’s top holdings are Tencent Holdings, 8.8%; China Mobile, 8.0%; China Construction Bank, 7.5%; Industrial & Commercial Bank, 6.8%; Bank of China, 5.9%; Ping An Insurance, 4.5%; China Life, 4.4%; CNOOC Ltd., 3.9%; PetroChina, 3.8%; China Petroleum and Chemical, 3.4%; and China Overseas Land & Investment, 2.5%. The fund’s holdings give it the following industry breakdown: Financials, 48.1%; Telecommunications, 11.7%; Oil and Gas, 11.6%; Technology, 11.1%; Industrials, 6.2%; Consumer Goods, 6.4%; and Utilities, 2.1%. Its expense ratio is 0.74%....

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....

ISHARES MSCI CHILE INVESTABLE MARKET INDEX FUND $40.95 (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 S.A.C.I. Falabella (retail), 10.6%; Enersis SA (electricity), 9.6%; Empresas Copec SA (conglomerate), 7.9%; Empresa Nacional de Electricidad (electricity), 7.2%; LATAM Airlines, 5.0%; Banco Santander Chile (banking), 4.9%; Empresas CMPC (pulp and paper), 4.9%; Banco de Chile, 4.4%; Cencosud SA (retailer), 4.2%; and Quimica y Minera de Chile (mining), 4.1%.

The fund’s industry breakdown is: Utilities, 28.3%; Financials, 18.1%; Materials, 11.8%; Consumer Discretionary, 11.4%; Consumer Staples, 9.3%; Industrials, 8.2%; Energy, 7.7%; Telecommunications, 2.2%; and Information Technology, 2.2%.

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FEDEX CORP., $172.04, New York symbol FDX, earned $580 million in the third quarter of its 2015 fiscal year, which ended February 28, 2015. That’s up 53.4% from $378 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings gained 63.4%, to $2.01 from $1.23, beating the consensus forecast of $1.87. The gains mainly resulted from the company’s recent restructuring and a 30.4% drop in fuel costs. Harsh winter weather in the year-earlier quarter also disrupted ground deliveries and depressed FedEx’s earnings. Overall revenue rose 3.7%, to $11.7 billion from $11.3 billion, missing the consensus estimate of $11.8 billion....

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 six international ETFs:...

ISHARES MSCI CHILE INVESTABLE MARKET INDEX FUND $40.95 (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 S.A.C.I. Falabella (retail), 10.6%; Enersis SA (electricity), 9.6%; Empresas Copec SA (conglomerate), 7.9%; Empresa Nacional de Electricidad (electricity), 7.2%; LATAM Airlines, 5.0%; Banco Santander Chile (banking), 4.9%; Empresas CMPC (pulp and paper), 4.9%; Banco de Chile, 4.4%; Cencosud SA (retailer), 4.2%; and Quimica y Minera de Chile (mining), 4.1%. The fund’s industry breakdown is: Utilities, 28.3%; Financials, 18.1%; Materials, 11.8%; Consumer Discretionary, 11.4%; Consumer Staples, 9.3%; Industrials, 8.2%; Energy, 7.7%; Telecommunications, 2.2%; and Information Technology, 2.2%....

Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group is one of the world’s largest investment-management companies. The group administers over $2 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....

VANGUARD FTSE EMERGING MARKETS ETF $41.09 (New York symbol VWO; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) Transitions 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), China Mobile, Itau Unibanco Holding SA (Brazil: banking), China Construction Bank, Bank of China, Tencent Holdings (China: Internet), Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, Naspers Ltd. (South Africa: media); Banco Bradesco (Brazil: banking); and Hon Hai Precision Industry (Taiwan: electronics).

The $62.5-billion fund’s breakdown by country is as follows: China (24.4%), Taiwan (14.3%), India (11.7%), Brazil (10.7%), South Africa (9.5%), Mexico (5.6%), Malaysia (4.5%), Russia (3.6%), Indonesia (3.0%), Thailand (3.0%), Turkey (2.0%), Philippines (1.8%), Poland (1.8%) and others (4.1%).

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