Of the 24 countries classified as emerging markets by MSCI, there are 13 which have only a single dedicated ETF available to US investors. The list includes major markets like South Africa, which houses the sixth largest stock exchange in emerging markets and has a market cap of over $1 trillion.
The iShares MSCI South Africa ETF (EZA) – the only ETF tracking the South African market that is traded on US exchanges – tracks the MSCI South Africa Index, which is comprised of 53 constituents. There are no sector or theme-based funds tracking the market even though there are 18 indices on the local exchange, according to Bloomberg data.
The MSCI South Africa IMI Index, which has 111 constituents across various market caps could be an interesting option for an ETF with an even broader based exposure to a market which is currently underrepresented.
It’s not to say that ETFs investing in South Africa or other countries with just one dedicated fund like Chile are not attracting investor interest. Aside from the six largest Chinese ETFs out of the 31 funds focused on China (KBA) (PEK), the EZA and iShares MSCI Chile Capped ETF (ECH) are bigger than all others. They are larger than ETFs investing in Argentina (ARGT) (AGT) and Colombia (GXG) (ICOL) as well, both of which have two ETFs each tracking their markets.
In the graph above, single country ETFs like that for Turkey (TUR), Thailand (THD), and a frontier market like Vietnam (VNM) all feature among the largest funds in this segment.
Untouched corners
The MSCI country indices for Hungary and Czech Republic, both emerging markets, have done well in YTD 2017, having returned 35% and 18% respectively. However, there are not currently ETFs listed on US markets that would allow investors to partake in the strong performance of these countries.
The broad-based fund route does not help either. The most exposure one could get for these countries is 4.7% for Hungary and 2.5% for Czech Republic.
As far as frontier markets are concerned, there are only three countries with dedicated ETFs out of the 33 that MSCI classifies in that category – Argentina, Vietnam, and Nigeria.
Time for a relook?
There remains noticeable pockets in the frontier and emerging markets universe that can be turned into investment avenues.
Investor interest should not be a big hurdle, as the lone ETFs tracking some of the larger markets have had good traction and are considerably larger than a majority of funds tracking much bigger and popular markets.
The launch of the AGT in April this year made Argentina the first frontier market to have two ETFs tracking it. Its asset size growth would be of interest to fund companies looking at launching single-country funds for similar or even larger markets except for China, India, and Brazil.
Thus, it may be time to relook at the present offerings and think about deepening the number and scope of offerings for markets which have done well over the medium to long-term and can thus find traction.
