iShares Asia Region ETFs Weekly and YTD Returns

Last week U.S. stocks received a lot of attention as the Dow hit new highs and the S&P 500 reclaimed the 1,500 level for the first time since 2000. The real action however, was in Asia, as Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and now S. Korea are up double-digits for the year.

The iShares S&P 500 (IVV) was actually the second worst performer last week among the ETFs I surveyed, only beating iShares MSCI Japan (EWJ), which traded while Japanese exchanges were closed three days for the Golden Week holiday.

Malaysia (EWM) gained 3% for the week and is now up over 30% for the year, leading all iShares Asia ETFs and benchmarks.

Singapore (EWS) added 4.2% -- last week's leading advancer -- and has now gained more than 20% in '07.

See the chart below for last week's results. There are two sets of returns for each ETF: the past week [light blue] and year-to-date [purple].

The bars for the iShares S&P 500 index (IVV) are colored differently for comparative purposes.

Click to enlarge chart

Disclosure: The author does not own shares of any funds mentioned in this article.

The Pacific ex-Japan ETF (EPP) is up 14.7% for the year, outperforming both the EAFE Index (EFA) +10% and the S&P 500 (IVV) +6.5%.

Lastly, the three laggards for the year are the FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (FXI) -1.1%, Taiwan (EWT) 0.7% and Japan +1.5%.

Here is a list of the relevant ETFs and their tickers.

iShares Australia (EWA)
iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (FXI)
iShares Hong Kong (EWH)
iPath ETN MSCI India (INP)
iShares Japan (EWJ)
iShares Malaysia (EWM)
iShares Singapore (EWS)
iShares S. Korea (EWY)
iShares Taiwan (EWT)
iShares EAFE (EFA)
iShares Pacific ex-Japan (EPP)
iShares S&P 500 (IVV)