One Foreign Market Index, One ETF !!

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For many years, ishares’s single country ETFs have dominated the ETF market for investing in one specific country. These ETFs tracked the main market index of the corresponding countries. They have been a huge success with funds such
as EWG and EWA collecting assets of over $1.0B since launch.

Due to the success of the ishare’s single country ETFs and the rising investor demand for foreign markets exposure, Northern Trust has recently launched a bunch of country based ETFs that will track the market index of the corresponding countries.Northern Trust hopes that it can become a serious competitor to the dominance of ishares in this area.

The new ETFs from Northern Trust are:

NETS(TM) Hang Seng Index Fund (Hong Kong) – HKG
NETS(TM) TOPIX® Index Fund (Japan) – TYI
NETS(TM) CAC40® Index Fund (France) – FRC
NETS(TM) FTSE 100 Index Fund (UK) – LDN
NETS(TM) DAX® Index Fund (Germany) – DAX
NETS(TM) S&P/ASX 200 Index Fund (Australia) – AUS


Analysis:
Since their launch in mid April this year, they ETFs have been doing ok.Volume is still pretty low in the thousands or a few hundered shares on a daily basis. Hopefully the volume will pick up as more investors discover the benefits of going foreign with these
simple and easy index based ETFs.

For now, its best to watch these ETFs over the next few months and see how they perform before investing in them.We would n’t be surprised if AUS and DAX end up with more assets and stock price appreciation by the end of the year than the other four.

Links:
1. ishares

British Bank ADRs – A Bargain?

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There was an article in the “This is Money” site on May 8th about British bank stocks. The article basically suggested that maybe its time to cherry pick some of these battered
banks.Experts seem to believe that the worst of the credit crunch is finally over and that good times are ahead for British banks.

In the article,Guy de Blonay, a financial expert, and manager of the New Star Financials fund said “I would be surprised, given the information we have now, if financial stocks were not higher in 12 months time.”

As per the article, the market consensus on the following three banks are “Hold”.
1. Llyods Bank
2. Barclays
3. HSBC

Standard Chartered is a “Cautious Buy”.

The article puts HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland,Allicane & Leicester in the weaker banks category and a “Weak Hold” rating on them.

Llyods

ADR Impact:LYG, BCS, HBC, HBOOY and RBS trade as ADRs in the US.

Allicane & Leicester and Standard Chartered are not available as ADRs.

The following table lists some of the key financial ratios on these British Banks :

[TABLE=38]
Lloyds bank does not have heavy US exposure and investments like HBC.So we would argue that it is a buy at these levels considering the excellent dividend yields.

Barclays has been hit pretty bad in recent months due to the failed attempt to acquire ABN Amro of Holland. Still BCS is a good buy for the long-term.It is a truly global bank with branches in many countries.

HBC may have some more losses and may find the going tough due to its acquisition of Household International a few years bank which lends heavily to high risk borrowers.If the economy worsens then HBC could face more problems.

HBOOY is a buy since it is mostly a UK-focussed mortgage lender.The share price is < $10 in the US. If you believe that the UK housing market is different than the US and
that the UK housing may not plunge as in the US, then HBOOY is a definite buy at these levels. The stock got split a year or two ago as the company rode the housing boom in the UK.

RBS was listed on the NYSE recently.This is a definite buy at these levels since the bank has an awesome yield and has been in business for over 100+ years operating
with a traditional Scottish management principles. Also recently the bank undertook a major re-capitalization program to shore up its bruised but not broken balance sheet.

Links:
Is it time to buy bank shares?

New ADRs in OTC for 2008:

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Some of the companies that used to be listed on the NYSE moved to the OTC market in the past few months. They moved their stock to the OTC due to the high regulatory
requirements imposed on them by the SOX law and also the high listing fees ($50K+) by the NYSE.

So these high quality world companies now trade on the OTC market – also known as the Pink Sheets.In this post we will list a few of these ADRs.Some of these foreign stocks
may not have moved to the OTC from NYSE.Instead they may have opted for the OTC market when they first went to the US for raising capital.

The ADRs below are new listing in the OTC for 2008.There are many other stocks that moved to OTC in 2007.We will come back to those in a future post.

1.Benetton Group – BNGPY

Benetton logo

Country – Italy
Sector – Personal Goods (Main business is Clothing)
Dividend – $1.25

2.Enel SpA – ENLAY

Enel Logo

Country – Italy
Sector – Electricity
Dividend Yield – 4.24%

3.Intesa Sanpaolo – ISNPY

logointesasanpaolo.gif

Country – Italy
Sector – Banking
Dividend Yield – 4.13%

4.Marks and Spencer – MAKSY

_96471_marks_and_spencer_logo_300_19-05-98_elvis.jpg

Country – UK
Sector – Retailing
Dividend Yield – 4.18%

Three Canadian ADRs !!!

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Canadian ADR stocks such as BMO,BNS,TD,ECA,RY,CNI,CP,PCZ, etc. are popular among US investors.However there are some other ADRs that kinda trade under the radar.

In this post lets look at three such ADRs:

1.TransCanada Corp – TRP
Dividend Yield – 3.78%
S&P; Rating – 3 stars
Sector – utilities (Electricity and Natural Gas Pipelines)
The 5 year chart looks nice with a slow and steady upward path.

Recent news:
May 5 – TransCanada to Issue $1.1 Billion of Common Shares (Market Wire)

2.CHC Helicopter Corp – FLI
Dividend Yield – 1.56%
S&P; Rating – No Rating
52 Week Chg – 45.24%
Sector – Air Transport Services

3.CAMECO CP – CCJ
Dividend Yield – 0.62%
S&P; Rating – No Rating
52 Week Chg – (25.53)%
Sector – Insutrial Minerals (Uranium)

Panama ADRs !!

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Image – Panama Flag


Panama is a small country formed by the US for the construction of the Panama Canal in 1903.Panama’s country is the US Dollar. Due to the canal, the country is highly important for its strategic location.

There are three ADRs from Panama trading in the NYSE. They are:

1. Banco Latinoamericano de Exportaciones SA
Ticker – BLX
Yield – 4.63 %

2.COPA HOLDINGS S.A.
Ticker – CPA
Yield – 0.71%

3.WILLBROS GRP INC
Ticker – WG
Yield – No dividend paid