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BlackRock Adds Poland ETF
May 27, 2010
SAN DIEGO (ETFguide.com) – BlackRock introduced a new ETF that will invest in stocks from Poland.
The iShares MSCI Poland Investable Market Index Fund (NYSEArca: EPOL) will hold 30 stocks and is benchmarked to the MSCI Poland Investable Market Index.
Over the past several months, BlackRock has continued to add ETFs that target specific countries.
Recently, the investment firm launched the iShares MSCI Ireland Capped Investable Market Index Fund (NYSEArca: EIRL), iShares MSCI Indonesia Investable Market Index Fund (NYSEArca: EIDO) and iShares MSCI USA Index Fund (NYSEArca: EUSA).
Poland is home to roughly 38 million people and the country’s total GDP in 2009 was almost $700 billion. Located in central Europe, Poland does not use the euro currency (NYSEArca: FXE) but rather the zloty.
The iShares Poland ETF will compete directly for assets with the Market Vectors Poland ETF (NYSEArca: PLND). PLND, which was launched last November, has around $20 million in assets and charges 0.76% annually.
EPOL is heavily concentrated in financial stocks (46.13%) with energy (12.99%) and materials (12.63%) among the other top industry sectors.
According to the prospectus, the fund’s annual expense ratio is 0.65% and its underlying index is sampled by BlackRock’s advisors. |
