=EPOL : Tracks Poland, one of Europe's hottest markets

The broad Polish WIG index is up about 17% so far this year, easily outperforming the main indexes in France, Germany and Britain. Little wonder, iShares MSCI Poland Capped ETF (EPOL) joined the IBD ETF Leaders screen this month. It is trading at the highest levels in nearly two years.

Shares of the ETF broke out of a consolidation in January and sped up 18% from Jan. 11 to March 21. The ETF cooled its advance in late March and part of April as it pulled back to the 50-day moving average. Shares found support and resumed their advance. The ETF is currently too extended from buy areas, so investors must wait for a new opportunity to emerge on the chart.

IShares Poland Capped owns about 35 stocks traded in the Warsaw Stock Exchange. It's called a capped ETF because no single component can exceed 25% of the portfolio, and all components with more than a 5% weighting must not exceed 50% of the fund's total weighting.

More than 40% of the portfolio is invested in financial firms, with nearly 20% in energy companies and 11% in materials. The single largest holding, with 12% of the fund's weighting, is Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen, an operator of refineries and gas stations that also provides aviation fuel, heating oil and other products.

The ETF has performed better than the WIG index this year. EPOL is up more than 30% and up nearly 40% in the past 12 months. The WIG is up about 30% in the past 12 months. In November, iShares Poland ETF began a sharp recovery after a deep slump that began in November 2013. Shares sank as much as 52% in that period.

Investing abroad involves certain risks that domestic investors don't face. As the ETF's prospectus warns, Poland's economy (the largest in Central Europe) depends largely on exports of raw materials and consumer goods. "As a result, Poland is dependent on trading relationships with certain key trading partners, including Germany and other EU countries."

In a report last November, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast GDP growth of 3% a year in 2017-18. Poland is trying to catch up with Europe's developed nations in terms of living standards and economic growth, says the World Bank, but must leverage technology and cope with a rapidly aging population.

KraneShares (KWEB) : China Internet ETF

more info:

• http://kraneshares.com/kweb/#
• http://portfolios.morningstar.com/fund/holdings?t=KWEB

China Internet Sector Highlights:

• China eRetailing sales topped $410 billion in 2013 and is projected to reach $650 billion by 2020;  a 59% increase in sales
• When accessing the internet, 83% of Chinese users were more likely to use a mobile device versus a pc.
• 4.3% of retail sales in China are done via the internet vs 1.1% in the US
• Alibaba, one of the largest internet companies in the world, will IPO in 2H 2014 and should be added to KWEB 11 days after it IPOs

ICOL : BlackRock's iShares Launches an ETF to Access Colombia, The ‘New Brazil’

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun. 20, 2013-- BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) announced today that its iShares Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) business, the world's largest manager of ETFs, has launched the iShares MSCI Colombia Capped ETF (NYSE: ICOL). The new fund complements the iShares Latin and South American ETF line-up, which is the largest in terms of number of funds in the U.S.

"Colombia has been referred to as the 'new Brazil.' Institutional and retail investors now have an efficient means to access one of the world's most exciting economies, whether implementing a short-term tactical strategy or building a long-term diversified global portfolio," said Patrick Dunne, Head of iShares Global Markets and Investments at BlackRock.

According to the IMF2, Colombia has the third largest population among Latin and South American countries, with a growing educated and entrepreneurial middle class and a higher realized GDP growth than Brazil due to demand for its oil, natural gas and coal. According to the World Bank, there is an increasing amount of foreign investment in Colombia because of strong fiscal management, gradually declining debt, positive trading ties with the world and business-friendly economic policies focused on deregulation.

The iShares MSCI Colombia Capped ETF is designed to track the MSCI All Colombia Capped Index, which is a broad-based Colombia equity market index. The index includes companies that are headquartered or listed in Colombia and have the majority of their operations based in Colombia. The index applies certain investment constraints that are imposed on regulated investment companies, or RICs, under the current U.S. Internal Revenue Code, where no single group entity can exceed 25% of the index weight and all group entities with weights above 5% cannot exceed 50% of the index weight. The Barra Optimizer is utilized to calculate the capped index weights through an optimization function which is aimed at minimizing index turnover, tracking error and extreme deviation from the uncapped index.

As of May 29, 2013, the largest sector weightings of the index included financials (34.17%), energy (31.58%) and utilities (14.99%).

About BlackRock

BlackRock is a leader in investment management, risk management and advisory services for institutional and retail clients worldwide. At March 31, 2013, BlackRock's AUM was $3.936 trillion. BlackRock helps clients meet their goals and overcome challenges with a range of products that include separate accounts, mutual funds, iShares®(exchange-traded funds), and other pooled investment vehicles. BlackRock also offers risk management, advisory and enterprise investment system services to a broad base of institutional investors through BlackRock Solutions®. Headquartered in New York City, as of March 31, 2013, the firm has approximately 10,600 employees in 30 countries and a major presence in key global markets, including North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East and Africa. For additional information, please visit the Company's website at . www.blackrock.com

About iShares

iShares is a global product leader in exchange traded funds with over 600 funds globally across equities, fixed income and commodities, which trade on 20 exchanges worldwide. The iShares Funds are bought and sold like common stocks on securities exchanges. The iShares Funds are attractive to many individual and institutional investors and financial intermediaries because of their relative low cost, tax efficiency and trading flexibility. Investors can purchase and sell shares through any brokerage firm, financial advisor, or online broker, and hold the funds in any type of brokerage account. The iShares customer base consists of the institutional segment of pension plans and fund managers, as well as the retail segment of financial advisors and high net worth individuals.

Emerging Market ETFs: VWO Takes the Lead

On Jan. 18, the iShares MSCI Emerging Index Fund (NYSEArca: EEM) dropped to $46.36 billion in assets while Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: VWO), which rolled out two years fter EEM, hit $46.47 billion in assets, reports Olivier Ludwig for IndexUniverse. VWO was also the most popular U.S.-listed ETF in 2010, bringing in $19.34 billion.

Two reasons are attributed to VWO’s gain to fame. VWO has an expense ratio of 0.27%, as compared to EEM’s expense ratio of 0.69%. While both EEM and VWO are based MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which returned about 20% over the last year, VWO performed at 18%, whereas EEM returned 15.5%.

VWO uses a replication strategy that holds more securities than EEM to better mimic the underlying index.

Still, EEM traders enjoy using the fund due to its turnovers. For instance, EEM had turnover of $726.66 billion last year alone, compared to $164.54 billion for VWO, which suggests that VWO attracts greater buy-and-hold investors.

Full list of emerging market ETFs here

China Region 2010 ETF Performance

China Region 2010 ETF Performance

Symbol	Name	Fund Family	2010 Total Market Return
EWH	iShares MSCI Hong Kong Index	iShares	+22.86%
CZM	Direxion Daily China Bull 3X Shares	Direxion Funds	+21.27%
HAO	Guggenheim China Small Cap	Guggenheim Funds	+18.76%
CHIQ	Global X China Consumer ETF	Global X Funds	+18.00%
PGJ	PowerShares Gldn Dragon Halter USX China	PowerShares	+10.90%
CHIB	Global X China Technology ETF	Global X Funds	+10.24%
YAO	Guggenheim China All-Cap	Guggenheim Funds	+9.83%
CQQQ	Guggenheim China Technology	Guggenheim Funds	+9.19%
EWT	iShares MSCI Taiwan Index	iShares	+8.64%
GXC	SPDR S&P China	State Street Global Advisors	+8.51%
CHII	Global X China Industrials ETF	Global X Funds	+8.47%
FCHI	iShares FTSE China (HK Listed) Index	iShares	+7.44%
FXI	iShares FTSE China 25 Index Fund	iShares	+3.70%
XPP	ProShares Ultra FTSE China 25	ProShares	+3.46%
CHIE	Global X China Energy ETF	Global X Funds	+0.93%
CHIX	Global X China Financials ETF	Global X Funds	-1.60%
CHIM	Global X China Materials ETF	Global X Funds	--
CHXX	EGShares China Infrastructure	Emerging Global Advisors	--
ECNS	iShares MSCI China Small Cap Index	iShares	--
PEK	Market Vectors China ETF	Van Eck	--
TWON	IQ Taiwan Small Cap ETF	IndexIQ	--

full listing at http://www.artremis.com/article/etf_performance_YTD_china_region.html

Emerging Markets : Poland

Currently, there are two U.S.-listed ETFs that offer broad-based exposure to the economies of Eastern Europe, including the MSCI Emerging Markets Eastern Europe Index Fund (ESR) and the SPDR S&P Emerging Europe ETF (GUR). However, for investors looking for more pure play exposure on the surging Polish economy, the following two ETFs represent intriguing choices:

iShares MSCI Poland Investable Market Index Fund (EPOL)
This fund from iShares launched in late May of 2010 has already managed to gain close to $75 million in assets. EPOL tracks the MSCI Poland Investable Market Index, a free float adjusted market capitalization-weighted benchmark designed to measure the performance of stocks listed on exchanges in Poland. Unlike many emerging market funds, EPOL isn’t dominated by mega cap stocks; 38% of assets go towards large caps and 42% to mid caps. From a sector perspective, the fund is heavily concentrated in financials–which make up close to half of assets–with large weightings also going towards industrial materials (13%) and energy (13%) firms.

Market Vectors Poland ETF (PLND)
The original ETF tracking the Polish markets, this fund from Van Eck follows the Market Vectors Poland Index, a diversified benchmark consisting of about 25 companies either headquartered in Poland or deriving at least 50% of their revenues from the country. Currently, the fund maintains heavy weightings towards the financial (37%) and energy (17%) sectors. In terms of top holdings, copper and silver miner KGHM Polska Miedz (8%) takes the top spot and is closely trailed by two banks: PKO Bank Polski S.A. (7.7%) and Bank Polska Kasa Opieki S.A. (7.4%).

more on emerging markets ETFs, see http://www.artremis.com/article/etf_emerging_markets.html

New Emerging Market Funds Aim for Hot Spot

Over the past two weeks, eight emerging market ETFs have been introduced.

Lisle, IL-based Claymore Securities has just debuted the Claymore China Technology ETF (NYSEArca:CQQQ). The fund contains 34 holdings with exposure to large cap (19%), mid cap (33%) and small cap (48%) stocks. The AlphaShares China Technology Index serves as the fund’s underlying benchmark and the index is rebalanced semi-annually. CQQQ has an annual expense ratio of 0.70%.

Old Mutual Global introduced GlobalShares FTSE Emerging Markets Index Fund (NYSEArca: GSR). In its attempt to attract assets, the company won’t charge expenses to shareholders through January 21, 2010. Thereafter, GSR’s annual expense ratio will be 0.39%. The fund is benchmarked to the FTSE Emerging Markets Index and it contains around 300 holdings.

Last week Direxion Shares added four leveraged ETFs with market exposure to Chinese and Latin American stocks.

The Direxion Daily China Bull 3x Shares (NYSEArca: CZM) and the Direxion Daily Latin America 3x Bull Shares (NYSEArca: LBJ) attempt to triple the daily performance of their underlying benchmarks. In contrast, the Direxion Daily China Bear 3x Shares (NYSEArca: CZI) and the Direxion Daily Latin America 3x Bear Shares (NYSEArca: LHB) aim for three times opposite daily performance of their respective indexes.

“The emerging markets sector is increasingly tradeable in today’s evolving global investment landscape,” stated Dan O’Neill, Direxion Shares’ President. “Our Latin America mutual fund has been our largest mutual fund for some time, and our Daily Emerging Markets 3x ETFs have experienced heavier average volume recently. Tremendous trading opportunities appear to be underway in this space.”

The new Direxion ETFs will charge annual expenses between 0.94 to 0.95%.

In related news, Global X Funds introduced two Chinese sector funds. The Global X China Consumer ETF (NYSEArca: CHIQ) and the Global X China Industrials ETF (NYSEArca: CHII) are linked to publicly traded companies in narrow industries within China’s developing economy. Both funds follow indexes created by Structured Solutions AG and charge annual expenses of 0.65%.

Tripling China, Latin America

Direxion, which specialized in leveraged ETFs, released four triple-leveraged funds that track China and Latin America.

They're designed to provide 300% of the negative and positive daily return of the BNY China Select ADR Index and S&P Latin America 40 Index.

1. Direxion Daily China Bull 3X (CZM).

2. Direxion Daily Latin America 3x Bull (LBJ).

3. Direxion Daily China Bear 3x (CZI).

4. Direxion Daily Latin America 3x Bear (LHB).

Poland: World's 18th Largest Economy Finally Has ETF Tracking It

New York-based Van Eck launched on Wednesday the Market Vectors Poland ETF (PLND), a fund that will track the 26-company Market Vectors Poland Index. PLND will trade on the NYSE Arca Exchange and charge an expense ratio of 0.76%. 


Unlike most single-country international ETFs, which tend to be dominated by holdings in multi-national mega-cap companies, PLND offers exposure to companies of all sizes: according to its fact sheet, 41% of the underlying index is composed of companies with a market capitalization greater than $5 billion, with almost 50% in mid-caps.

To be included in the index, companies must have a market cap of $150 million or more and trade at least 250,000 shares a month.

Financials, weighted at 40%, are the largest sector, then energy 14%, industrials 11%, consumer staples 9%, basic materials 8%, telecom 7%, consumer discretionary 7%, telecom 4.5% and health care 1%.

Investing In Poland
Poland is the world’s 18th largest economy by 2008 GDP, making it surprising that there hasn’t been a pure play ETF prior to PLND. The void is even more confusing considering that #43 (Chile – ECH), #44 (Vietnam – VNM), and #50 (Israel – EIS) on the list are the subjects of country-specific ETFs. Poland is a shining example of a country that successfully transitioned from a centrally-planned economy to a capitalist market-based economy, thanks in large part to aggressive policies implemented since the fall of communism.

Poland’s economy certainly faces some hurdles. Its adoption of the euro has been shelved due to a failure to meet entry requirements set forth by the EU, and a once ambitious government has seen several initiatives sputter. Poland’s public debt could breach the threshold set by Polish law by exceeding 55% of GDP next year. Prime Minister Donald Tusk is now focusing on more manageable domestic agenda items, such as improving transportation infrastructure, increasing internet access, and gearing up for the 2012 European soccer championship.

Despite these obstacles, there are some reasons to be bullish on Poland. “Poland is the largest and fastest growing economy in Central and Eastern Europe,” said Jan van Eck, principal of Van Eck Global. “Poland’s economy has recently surpassed Belgium and Sweden and is one of the only economies in the CCE region to show positive growth this year.”

Poland’s local economy accounts for approximately 70% of GDP, allowing the country to come through the recent recession unscathed, at least relative to more export-dependent countries. Poland also has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in Europe and and a young, educated workforce, making the country an ideal location for multi-national firms looking to expand their reach into Europe.

more at http://www.vaneck.com/index.cfm?cat=3192&cGroup=ETF&tkr=PLND

Claymore unveils new China ETF

Just days after its acquisition by Guggenheim Partners LLC was finalized, Claymore Securities Inc. has rolled out a new China exchange-traded fund – a launch that will likely be just the first of many, now that the Claymore/Guggenheim marriage is official.

The Claymore/AlphaShares China All-Cap ETF (YAO), which officially launched today and is Clatmore’s third China ETF, had been in the works prior to the merger with Guggenheim closed on Oct. 15.

With Guggenheim’s deep pockets – the firms has over $100 billion in assets under supervision – Claymore is positioned to ramp up development of new products, Claymore president Christian Magoon said in an interview.

“I think you’re going to see growth in the form of new products,” he said.

Claymore has three more China ETFs planned, Mr. Magoon added.

“We really believe China is one of the best investment stories over the next 50 years,” Mr. Magoon said.

Claymore’s latest China ETF seeks to replicate the AlphaShares China All Cap Index, a broad index of publicly traded companies based in China.

The company’s previous China ETFs were the Claymore/AlphaShares China Small Cap Index ETF (HAO), the first ETF to focus on Chinese small-cap companies, and the Claymore/AlphaShares China Real Estate ETF (TAO), the first ETF to focus on Chinese real estate companies.