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MCHI: There Are Now 23 China ETFs

 by Ron Rowland  

BlackRock, Inc. (BLK) yesterday (3/31/11) announced the listing of the iShares MSCI China Index Fund (MCHI).  The press release claims it is the first ETF to be benchmarked to the large cap and mid cap MSCI universe, providing exposure to the top 85% of Chinese equities by market cap.  However, MCHI becomes the twenty-third China ETF, and some of the existing ones provide similar or even broader coverage of the country.

The overview page does not currently contain any information, but according to the month old fact sheet (pdf), the fund is slated to have 141 holdings and an expense ratio of 0.61%.  The largest positions are China Mobile Ltd 8.6%, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China –H 7.1%, China Construction Bank –H 6.4%, CNOOC Ltd 6.1%, and Bank of China Ltd –H 5.0%.

Sector breakdown has Financials at 37.0%, Energy 18.4%, Telecom 11.4%, Industrials 8.0%, Technology 6.4%, Materials 6.1%, Consumer Discretionary 5.4%, Consumer Staples 4.7%, Utilities 1.8%, and Health Care 0.8%.

MCHI joins a long list of ETFs providing investors with exposure to China.  The dominant ETF in this category is one of four China offerings from iShares – iShares FTSE China 25 (FXI), but as its name implies, holds only the 25 largest China stocks.  There is also the iShares FTSE China (HK Listed) Index Fund (FCHI) with 121 cap-weighted holdings, making MCHI very similar to FCHI.  MCHI does not indicate the percentage of its holdings that are Hong Kong listed, but nine of the top ten holdings are identical between MCHI and FCHI.

Other China ETFs for investors to consider include SPDR S&P China ETF (GXC), PowerShares Golden Dragon China (PGJ), Guggenheim China Small Cap (HAO), Guggenheim China All-Cap ETF (YAO), iShares MSCI China Small Cap Index Fund (ECNS), and Market Vectors China A-Shares ETF (PEK).  There is also a large selection of leveraged, inverse, and sector-specific China ETFs available.

Disclosure covering writer, editor, and publisher:  Long GXC.  No positions in any of the companies or ETF sponsors mentioned.  No income, revenue, or other compensation (either directly or indirectly) received from, or on behalf of, any of the companies or ETF sponsors mentioned.

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