Five of these North American ETFs are buys

Article Excerpt

The six ETFs we update below mainly hold high-quality stocks that are widely traded on Canadian and U.S. ex- changes. Each fund tracks the performance of a major stock market index. That’s different from ETFs focused on narrower indexes or themes such as solar power and bio- technology. Of course, you pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell these investments. But low management fees give them a cost advantage over most mutual funds. We recommend five of these six funds for new buying. ISHARES S&P/TSX 60 INDEX ETF $22.92 (Toronto symbol XIU; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) is a good low-fee way to buy the top stocks on the TSX. Specifically, the units are made up of stocks that represent the S&P/TSX 60 Index. It focuses on the 60 largest, most heavily traded stocks on the exchange. The ETF began trading on September 28, 1999. Its expenses are now just 0.18% of assets; it yields 2.8%. The S&P/TSX 60 Index mostly consists of high-quality companies…