Say Ciao to Italian ADRs

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This post will list the Italian ADR stocks and discuss the ishares ETF for Italy.In the developed world, Italy offers some good investment opportunities. An investor looking to invest in Italy can take the easy route and select the country specific MSCI Index ETF from ishares. The ishares ETF for Italy is EWI.

EWI is not a big fund like EWA(Australia) or EWG (Germany).EWI has assets of about $239M. the dividend yield is 3.06% and the PE is 10.96.This ETF has a heavy allocation in financials at 45%.Rest of the fund is distributed among utilities,energy,etc.The fund has 37 stocks including Enel,Eni,Unicredit,Intesa Sanpaolo,Fiat, etc.

EWI Returns:
YTD the fund is down 5.65%.The average annualized returns are as follows:
1 yr: -7.75%
3 Yr: 12.02%
5 Yr: 15.66%

Note: All data mentioned here is as of June 27,2008.

So overall the ETF performance is good over many years.

However if you want to invest in individual Italian companies, there are a few ADRs available in the US.Out of these Italian ADRs Enel,Eni and Fiat are decent long-term plays.

The complete list of Italian ADR stocks are listed below:

[TABLE=66]

Top stocks for the next 5 years

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The five stocks listed below are some of the best foreign stocks one can hold for the next 5 years. They are selected based on many factors like dividend rates,consistent performance,long-term growth,ability to weather adverse market conditions, etc.

1.Company: Royal Bank of Canada
Country: Canada
Ticker: RY

2.Company: United Overseas Bank
Country: Singapore
Ticker: UOVEY

3.Company: RWE AG
Country: Germany
Ticker: RWEOY

4.Company: The Bank Of Nova Scotia
Country: Canada
Ticker: BNS

5.Company: ABB Ltd
Country: Switzerland
Ticker: ABB

Closed-End Funds Conondrums

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Which Closed-End funds should you buy now?
Invest in those funds that are trading at a discount to the NAV.Simply put they are cheap.

What are some of the funds trading cheap now?
Here are five closed-end funds:

1. Mexico Fund – MXF
Discount to NAV: -14.09%

2. New Germany Fund – GF
Discount to NAV: -13.40%

3. Singapore Fund – SGF
Discount to NAV: -12.64%

4. The New Ireland Fund – IRL
Discount to NAV: -11.55%

5. Chile Fund – CH
Discount to NAV: -9.19%

India: Making Sense of the Sensex bubble

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The Indian Stock Market has been on a downward draft for many months now. Sensex is the barometer of the stock market there.

Sensex 1 Year Chart

Sensex

Today the Central Bank changed the monetary policy to contain the out-of-control inflation rate. Basically the bank raised interest rates for bank borrowings by 50 basis points to 8.5%. It also increased the reserves that banks have to keep by 50 basis points to 8.75. This is done in two steps with 0.25 on July 5 and another 0.25 on July 19. This is an strong policy change on part of the government to tackle inflation. Recently inflation crossed over 11%. Thats a staggering rate by any measure.

Last month the government raised fuel prices by 11% for gas and 9.4% for diesel to help government run oil companies reduce their heavy losses each day since they do not sell fuel at market prices. Interest rate hikes and fuel price increases are cooling off the economy. The Sensex touched another new low for the year today. Based on these and other factors, our suggestion to investors interested in the Indian story is to wait till next year.

Last year foreign investors pumped over $1B a month into the markets taking many stocks to sky high levels. These days they are taking out the same amounts at an incredible pace pulling down the market. Wall Street firms are liquidating their Indian investments to finance their capital issues here in the US.

So lets wait till the end of this year and see where the Indian market ends.

ETFs: The Complete List of India ETFs and ETNs Trading on the US Markets