
iShares lists three country funds in US
BlackRock's ETF arm iShares has listed three single country MSCI funds on NYSE Arca in the US.
The latest offering includes the iShares MSCI Ireland Capped Investable Market Index fund, MSCI Indonesia Investable Market Index fund and the MSCI USA Index fund.
These ETFs join the issuer's range of single country funds, which iShares says is the largest offering in terms of the number of products available in the US.
The Ireland fund provides exposure to a developed market economy which iShares says is stabilising in terms of unemployment and consumer spending.
The underlying MSCI index is a free-float adjusted market capitalisation weighted benchmark, designed to measure the top 99% of equity securities listed on Irish stoxk exchanges.
The top three sectors in this index are materials at 25%, consumer staples at 23% and industrials at 18%, as of the end of March.
The Indonesia fund is based on an emerging market economy with growth forecasts of 6.5% through 2010, according to research by Barclays Capital.
The top three sectors in the underlying MSCI index consist of financials at 29%, energy at 13% and telecoms at 13%, as of the end of March.
The US fund adds to the existing iShares ETFs tracking US benchmarks. The index is market capitalisation weighted and measures the performance of equity securities in the top 85% of those listed on US stock exchanges.
The top three sectors include technology at 19%, financials at 16% and healthcare at 12% as of the end of March.
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