Six global ETFs with strong appeal

Article Excerpt

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer very low management fees. As well, the best ETFs offer well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of high-quality stocks. However, the quality of ETFs varies widely. All too many exist to tap into popular, but risky, themes and fads. So you need to be highly selective with your ETF holdings. Here are six foreign ETFs we like: ISHARES MSCI JAPAN INDEX FUND $9.31 (American Exchange symbol EWJ; buy or sell through a broker; us.ishares.com) is an exchange-traded fund that tries to match the return of the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Japan index. The fund’s top holdings include Toyota Motor, 4.5%; Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, 2.7%; Canon, 2.4%; Honda Motor, 2.3%; Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, 1.8%; Takeda Pharmaceutical, 1.7%; Mizuho Financial Group, 1.6%; Mitsubishi Corporation, 1.3%; NTT DoCoMo Inc., 1.3%; and Fanuc Corp., 1.2%. The fund’s industry breakdown is as follows: Industrials, 20.2%; Consumer Discretionary, 19.2%; Financials, 17.1%; Information Technology, 12.2%; Materials, 7.2%; Health Care, 6.7%; Consumer Staples, 6.2%; Telecommunication Services, 4.5%; Utilities, 4.0%; and Energy,…