Asia Region ETFs Succumb to Selling Pressure

by: Steven Towns posted on: December 17, 2007 | about stocks: EFA / EPP / EWA / EWH / EWJ / EWM / EWS / EWT / EWY / FXI / INP

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iShares Asia region country-based ETFs fell across the board last week, after two weeks of broad gains, with Friday's down market exacerbating losses. iPath ETN MSCI India (INP) declined for the first time in five weeks, while iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (FXI) gave back all of its recent gains.

iPath ETN India, -2.7%, fared better than other regional funds considering the potential downside if there were heavy profit-taking. INP is still up almost 100% for the year.

iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 remained the second-best performer among the funds surveyed, but its 9.5% loss last week shaved its ytd return to under 54%.

iShares Malaysia (EWM) lost the least last week, -2.5%, but its ytd return slipped below 40% again. EWM has been among the best regional performers the past two weeks.

iShares Japan (EWJ) was among the biggest decliners, falling nearly 7% on the week and now down by a similar amount for the year. EWJ had returned to positive territory the week prior. Meanwhile, iShares Taiwan (EWT) dropped 8.8% and is barely in positive territory ytd (+1.0%).

Monday (12/17) Asian Market Summary: Markets Drop Sharply

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.

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)