iShares Asia Region ETFs Weekly and YTD Returns

There was downside movement in share prices of more than half the Asia region iShares ETFs for the second consecutive week. Year-to-date leader iShares MSCI Malaysia (EWM) was the biggest decliner, while S. Korea (EWY) led all advancers and iPath ETN MSCI India (INP) added to recent gains.

Malaysia (EWM) lost 2.9%, seemingly on profit-taking (perhaps at least partially induced by lower crude prices) given its ytd return still over 30%.

The ringgit's strength against the dollar is positive for American investors and not necessarily worrisome for the Malaysian economy, since the ringgit is trading mixed against a basket of currencies including within the Asia region.

TheStreet.com discussed investing in Malaysia earlier this month, quoting a research note by Sean Darby, head of Asia strategy for Nomura in Hong Kong:

"The backdrop for Malaysian equities appears bright. An undervalued exchange rate, an expanding balance of payments, falling inflation and high real interest rates are the perfect ingredients for financial assets to appreciate. Furthermore, the authorities are benefiting from a commodity boom that is still raging after four years."

iShares S&P 500 (IVV) was among the funds surveyed that faced some selling pressure, losing 0.5% for the week, but it is up 7.0% year-to-date and still outperforming all of Northeast Asia except iShares MSCI S. Korea (EWY), which added 1.8% for a 15.2% ytd return.

Taiwan (EWT) gained 1.4% to return to positive territory for the year, although just barely.

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.

Benchmark indices were up broadly in Asia on Monday, led by Shanghai +2.2% to 4,272.11.

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)

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[Nidhi Kadalbal:]

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2007 May 30 10:27 PM