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April 01, 2010 at 04:00 AM
Van Eck Global has added the Market Vectors Egypt Index ETF (EGPT) to its fund lineup. The move came amid a flurry of international offerings by various providers.
“The Market Vectors Egypt Index ETF addresses a growing interest in using individual country funds to calibrate international equity allocations, particularly on the part of investors dissatisfied with existing indices,” said Jan van Eck, principal at Van Eck Global. “These funds serve as targeted tools for overweighting or underweighting specific geographies and economies.”
EGPT’s underlying index tracks the performance of companies that are domiciled and primarily listed in Egypt, or that generate a majority of their revenues in the country. At the end of January, the Egypt Index included 28 stocks and the top three index holdings were Commercial International Bank, Orascom Construction Industries and Orascom Telecom Holding SAE. EGPT is heavily tilted toward companies in the financial, industrial, materials and telecom sectors.
Egypt’s real economic growth has averaged 4.9 percent annually since the start of the last decade and 6.3 percent for the three years ending Dec. 31, 2009. Egypt’s move to a more open, market-oriented economy has led to expanding foreign investment, net exports, industrial development and business formation. Egypt is the most populous Arab country and the third most populous country in Africa.
The index uses a market-capitalization weighting methodology, and is float-adjusted and modified so that the weight of any single component does not account for more than eight percent of the total capitalization at a rebalancing date. It is denominated in U.S. dollars and reviewed quarterly.
Van Eck manages other country-focused ETFs like Africa (AFK), Brazil Small-Cap (BRF), Poland (PLND), Russia (RSX) and Vietnam (VNM). The New York-based company manages around $12 billion in ETF assets.
