Saturday 20 October 2018

Asia ex-Jpn ETF instead of STI ETF? (3085.HK)

I bought more 3085.HK on Thursday via FSMOne. As I have mentioned in earlier posts, this is a dividend ETF that focuses on 'value' China stocks (i.e. China Banks, Telcos) instead of the 'growth' tech stocks. 

As it is a regional ETF, it also counts DBS (no.6), OCBC (no.11), UOB (no.13), and Singtel (no.24) as part of its top holdings, so you also get 'home country' exposure, but with a focus on the 'big cap' stocks.

Then finally, you get exposure to the big cap ASEAN stocks in Thailand (4.9%), Malaysia (4.2%), Indonesia (1.4%). 

Its expense ratio of 0.35% is identical to the STI ETF. 

I like the composition of this ETF more than Vanguard's LSE listed Asia-Pacific ETF (VDPX, which contains almost 50% Australia) and iShares similar ETF (CPXJ) which I am also vested in. 

The fact that I can buy this with FSMOne (and thus diversify my holdings and not hold all my foreign stocks in Interactive Brokers) is also a bonus.

Downside?
The main downside is that the ETF size is relatively small, only HKD315.5m AUM since its 2014 inception. However the upside is there are always daily trades in this ETF and its not not of those ETFs with zero volume.



Alternatives?
Coincidentally, FSMOne has come up with an article about HKSE listed China banks and highlighted 3143.HK, BMO Hong Kong Banks ETF which holds banks listed on HKSE (HSBC and Stanchart included). The expense ratio is a reasonable 0.45% but the fund was established in 2014 and its AUM is only HKD$131m which is rather low. At least Vanguard's 3085 had grown to  HKD$315m within the same time period.




No comments:

Post a Comment