EWJ (iShares MSCI Japan, Expense Ratio 0.51%) has staggered a bit in the month of October before today’s 1.70% gap up rally thus far. The past several sessions saw the ETF trade at its 50 day moving average and also attracted put buyers into the marketplace, which we imagine are hedgers if not outright speculators on weakness heading into year’s end in Japanese equities.
EWJ remains the largest ETF targeting exposure to Japanese equities, although a momentous asset raising run for DXJ (WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity, Expense Ratio 0.48%) in 2013 (+$8.7 billion in new assets) has given it close company.
EWJ currently has $11.67 billion in AUM compared to DXJ’s $10.51 billion, and the fund has pulled in $5.3 billion of its own new assets via net creation activity so far in 2013. These two funds have the lion’s share of the collective assets in the ETF space devoted to exposure to Japanese equities at the moment, but there are fifteen other ETPs currently categorized in the space that may also be the recipients of additional attention heading into year’s end. DFJ (WisdomTree SmallCap Dividend, Expense Ratio 0.58%) has fared reasonably well in 2013 in terms of attracting new assets, as it has pulled in $80 million YTD, bringing its total size to $277 million.
DBJP (DB X-Trackers MSCI Japan Hedged Equity, Expense Ratio 0.51%) has emerged from relative obscurity in the space since its 2011 inception to rake in $164 million in new assets this year amid increasing institutional and perhaps retail interest in the greater Japanese equity space.
Other notables here include NKY (MAXIS Nikkei 225 Index, Expense Ratio 0.50%), JPP (SPDR Russell/Nomura PRIME Japan, Expense Ratio 0.50%), SCJ (iShares MSCI Japan Small Cap, Expense Ratio 0.53%), JSC (SPDR Russell/Nomura Small Cap Japan, Expense Ratio 0.55%) and ITF (iShares S&P TOPIX 150 Index, Expense Ratio 0.50%) to name a few.