Chindia Lead iShares Asia Region ETFs Higher

iShares Asia region country-based ETFs extended their broad rally to a fifth week. iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 and iPath ETN India led all advancers again, increasing their year-to-date returns above 80% and 50%, respectively.

iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (FXI) gained 5.9% and is now up 82% ytd.

iPath ETN India (INP) rose 3.2%, increasing its ytd return to more than 53%, second-best among the funds surveyed, followed by S. Korea (EWY) +0.2% (45.9% ytd).

Australia (EWA) +2.6%, Singapore (EWS) +1.1% and Pacific ex-Japan (EPP) +2.3%, are all up more than 40% ytd. Hong Kong (EWH) +2% and Malaysia (EWM) +0.8% are up more than 38% and 36% ytd, respectively.

Japan (EWJ) -0.9% and Taiwan (EWT) -2.2% were the only two funds among those surveyed to close lower on the week.

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 (10/15) trading, India's BSE 30 led all advancers, +3.5% to 19,058.67, reaching 19,000 for the first time. The Hang Seng gained 2.4% to 29,540.78 and the Shanghai Composite rose 2.2% to 6,030.09, both setting a new all-time high, with Shanghai crossing the 6,000 level for the first time. Country benchmarks traded higher across the region except for a 0.6% decline in Kuala Lumpur and a 0.1% loss in Australia.

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)