Updates on six North American ETFs

Article Excerpt

These six ETFs hold mostly blue-chip stocks that are widely traded on Canadian and U.S. exchanges. Each ETF mirrors, or tracks, the performance of a major stock market index. That’s different from narrower indexes that focus on 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 ETFs—five buys and one we don’t recommend. ISHARES S&P/TSX 60 INDEX ETF $22.99 (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. Specifically, the units are made up of stocks that represent the S&P/TSX 60 Index—the 60 largest, most heavily traded stocks on the exchange. The ETF began trading on September 28, 1999. Expenses are now just 0.18% of assets, and it yields 2.7%. The S&P/TSX 60 Index mostly consists of high-quality…