Some of the foreign stocks trading on the US exchanges have performed very well so far this year. The S&P 500 index is up by over 10% YTD and the KBW Nasdaq Bank Index which is one trackers for bank stocks has increased by 9% YTD. Among the foreign bank stocks, Argentinean banks have soared as the newly elected President Javier Milei is restructuring the fundamentals of the economy and bring its soaring inflation under control. The three argentine bank ADRs – Banco Macro(BMA), Grupo Financiero Galicia(GGAL) and Banco BBVA Argentina S.A. (BBAR) – are up by 77% to over 95%. The following table shows the YTD returns of exchange-listed foreign bank ADRs:
Source: BNY Mellon
Note: The returns shown above are as of market close May 10, 2024 and do NOT include dividends.
Brazilian banks are the in the red YTD. Brazil is known as the “Country of the Future” and it never seems to be able to unshackle itself from an emerging market to a developed market. Due to political issues and other factors, even rising copper prices haven’t helped Chilean banks Banco de Chile (BCH) and Banco Santander- Chile (BSAC) stay in positive territory this year.
It remains to be see how these banks perform thru the rest of 2024.
Disclosure: Long BCH, ITUB, BBD, CIB, SAN and BBVA
