Top 2005 ETF Gainers And Decliners; Where's The iShares Biotech Fund? (ETFs: OIH, XLE, BBH, IBB, TTH, SWH; DNA, AMGN)

Nick Perry (Schaeffer's Investment Research) submits: I normally focus on the movements over the last week, but given the light action, and last week's promise, I want to turn your attention to the action over the last year. The tables below show the best and worst performing funds, of the ones I discuss in this space:

Starting with the best performing ETFs, we see that it was a bad year for drivers but a good time for stocks related to oil and energy. Oil services took the lead with its staggering gain of more than 50 percent, but as we discussed earlier this month, the move was not straight up. The OIH, and energy stocks in general, sold of sharply in October and it took a few weeks for them to find their footing. The OIH proved the most resilient of the groups above as it was able to bounce back with a vengeance and overtake its September peak. The XLE, and others, were able to bounce back but the September peaks proved too tough a hurdle to overcome and they are poised to finish the year below their high water mark.

Given all the press, I doubt too many are surprised to see energy-related ETFs at the top of pack, but biotech may catch a few off guard. However, astute followers of this column will be quick to point out that while the BBH makes the "top five" the iShares Nasdaq Biotech Fund (IBB) is nowhere to be seen. Digging into the data, I found that the IBB was barely able to hold above breakeven, with a gain of just over two percent.

The IBB and BBH vary in their components and weighting. Specifically, the BBH's massive weighting toward Genentech (DNA) - at 40 percent - offers a reason for the divergence. In fact, the top two weighted stocks, DNA and Amgen (AMGN) , account for nearly two-thirds of the ETFs movement. The lack of consensus between the IBB and BBH hints to the disparities in that sector, so keep that in mind.

The last two points of interest I see are gold and utilities. And when I say gold, I am not talking about mining stocks, but the actual commodity tracked by the GLD which handily outpaced the broad market indices. The performance of the GLD and utilities is interesting because these don't seem to be areas that get much respect on the Street. In fact, all I seem to hearing from the Street is that 2006 will finally be the year big-caps take off. Which brings me to the lagging groups for 2005:

The worst losses seemed to center on select technology sub-groups and consumer related areas. The XLY, which tracks areas like retail, media, and restaurants, was tied with software and internet for the number two spot behind the TTH. Near the middle and bottom of the list we find pharmaceuticals, banks, the Dow Industrials and S&P 100. For the most part though, losses this year were contained as only a handful of groups declined more than five percent and none loss more than 10 percent.

Now, I want to wish everyone the best for the coming year. I am in the process of making a few changes to this column that I hope will offer you more information. I am expanding my coverage list to offer a wider perspective. Come back next week and tell me what you think.