iShares Asia Region ETFs Trade Broadly Higher

iShares Asia region country-based ETFs have now been on an uptrend for four consecutive weeks. iPath ETN India led all advancers, while iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 was second-best and increased its year-to-date return to more than 70%.

iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (FXI) gained 6.4% and is now up nearly 72% ytd.

iPath ETN India (INP) climbed 7.3%, increasing its ytd return to almost 49%, second-best among the funds surveyed, followed by S. Korea (EWY) +5.7% (45.6% ytd).

Singapore's (EWS) 6%-plus weekly gain took its ytd return over 40%. Meanwhile, four other funds have ytd returns above 35% including Hong Kong (EWH), Australia (EWA), Malaysia (EWM) and Pacific ex-Japan (EPP).

Laggard Japan (EWJ) added 2.2%, improving its ytd return to more than 3%. Taiwan (EWT) rose nearly 5% (+21.3% ytd).

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].

Note, 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.

In Monday (10/8) trading, the Shanghai Composite led all advancers, +2.5% to 5,692.75, setting a new all-time high. Taiwan rose 1.0%, Seoul was up 0.8% and Australia's benchmark gained 0.75%, both establishing new record highs. The BSE 30 paced decliners, -1.6% to 17,491.39. The Kuala Lumpur Composite declined 0.6%, the Hang Seng lost 0.2% and Singapore was down less than 0.1%. The Nikkei was closed for a national holiday.

Recommended reading: International ETFs Are Extremely Overbought

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)