Asia Region ETFs Higher for a Second Week, Led Yet Again by India

iShares Asia region country-based ETFs traded higher across the board for a second-straight week after a month of broad declines. iPath ETN MSCI India (INP) continued to lead all advancers for a fourth week and has now more than doubled on the year to $106.00.

iPath ETN India, +9.3%, is the best performer year-to-date among the funds surveyed and was the only one to close higher on Friday (+1.9%).

iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (FXI) and iShares Hong Kong (EWH) lost 4.1% and 4.9%, respectively, on Friday (related partially to further monetary tightening in the case of the former and because of profit-taking following a seven-session runup in the Hang Seng for the latter), but still managed to post weekly gains of 1.0% and 0.3%. For the year, FXI is up nearly 70% and EWH is up 42%.

iShares Malaysia (EWM) went from worst performer two weeks ago to being second-best last week, gaining 3.8% and increasing its ytd return to over 42%.

iShares Japan (EWJ), +1.3%, extended its rally to a fourth week and returned to positive territory for the year, although it is up less than 0.5%.

Monday Asian Market Summary: Asian Markets Dip; China Up 1.4%.

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.

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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)