What analysts have long predicted has finally happened: China
moved up another notch to become the world's No. 2 economy,
overtaking Japan. There are nearly two dozen exchange traded funds
(ETFs) to play this development.
Three-plus decades of growth has moved China is the number two
spot on the global economic stage, bumping Japan into third. And
the country may not be done.
Aileen Wang and Alan Wheatley for Yahoo Finance
report that
China is on course to overtake the United States and vault into the
top spot around 2025, according to projections by the World Bank,
Goldman Sachs and others. [
China ETFs: Opportunity and Risk.
]
China's economy expanded
11.1 % in the first half of 2010, from a year earlier, and is
likely to grow more than 9% for the whole year. According to the
ETF Analyzer
, there are 20 direct plays on China's economy. Sorting for
three-month performance, the top ETFs happen to be those that focus
on sectors:
-
Claymore/AlphaShares China Real Estate (NYSEArca:
TAO):
The top performer, up 10.2% in the last three months
-
Global X China Financials (NYSEArca: CHIX):
up 8.6% in the last three months
-
Global X China Industrials (NYSEArca: CHII):
up 5.6% in the last three months
Broader funds have also done well, including
Claymore/AlphaShares China All-Cap (NYSEArca: YAO)
, which is up 4.8% in that time frame.
The largest China ETFs are:
-
iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 (NYSEArca: FXI):
$8.2 billion in assets
-
SPDR S&P China (NYSEArca: GXC):
$556 million in assets
According to the Analyzer, most of these ETFs are above the
200-day moving average. So you don't miss a trading opportunity, we
suggest
signing up for alerts
, which will send you an email when a point you specify is
reached.
After wallowing in the doldrums for the better part of two
decades, Japan's stock market is finally attracting foreign money.
One analyst thinks this could be what is needed for a bull run of
Japanese shares. But will it be enough to nab the second position
back from China? [
Are Great Things Coming for Japan ETFs?
]
-
iShares MSCI Japan Index (
NYSEArca
: EWJ)
-
WisdomTree Japan Equity Income Fund (NYSEArca:
DNL)
For more stories about China or Japan, visit our
global ETFs category
.
Tisha Guerrero contributed to this article.