BMO Global Infrastructure Index ETF (TSX: ZGI)
Infrastructure names continued to struggle, with ZGI posting a very modest 0.3% drop in the three months ending April 30. This despite the strong rebound in the energy sector, which makes up nearly 40% of this fund. As we look forward, the outlook for infrastructure continues to improve. Economic growth globally appears to be more balanced, and many nations are now posting positive, albeit modest levels of growth.
Read MoreiShares MSCI EAFE Minimum Volatility Index ETF (TSX: XMI)
In most markets, low volatility ETFs have performed as advertised, outperforming the traditional cap based indices when markets fall. This ETF has broken that trend, falling 5.3% in Canadian dollar terms while the MSCI EAFE Index was down 3.9% during the same period. Much of the underperformance can be attributed to its healthcare and technology names, many of which struggled in the past few...
Read MoreiShares U.S. Fundamental Index ETF (TSX: CLU)
Like the PowerShares FTSE RAFI Canadian Fundamental Index ETF (TSX: PXC) highlighted above, this ETF is constructed using the same fundamentally driven, rules based process, ranking stocks on a number of fundamental criteria. Apart from investing in U.S. traded stocks, this ETF holds roughly 1,000 names, ten times that of its Canadian counterpart. The concentration issue that is prevalent in the Canadian fundamental ETFs is not seen in the U.S. versions. While there is still an overweight in energy and financials, the combined weight is roughly half that of PXC.
Read MorePowerShares FTSE RAFI Canadian Fundamental Index ETF (TSX: PXC)
This rules based ETF is built using a process that rates and ranks the Canadian universe of stocks on key fundamental factors including sales, cash flow, book value, and dividends. The stocks are each ranked by the four fundamental measures, which results in a total score for each company. They are then ranked by their scores from best to worst, and the top 100 or so make up the ETF. Stock weights are determined by the fundamental score, with the better ranked stocks making up a higher weight in the ETF. There are no constraints on sector weights, which is where I begin to get a little worried about this particular ETF.
Read MoreiShares Canadian Short Term Bond Index ETF (TSX: XSB)
Short term bonds underperformed in the period, as stability in the commodity sector put upward pressure on Canadian short term rates. For the three months ending April 30, the yield on the Canada two-year bond rose from 0.42% to 0.68%, while the Canada five year finished the period at 0.87%, up from 0.67%. Despite this bump, XSB managed to end the period modestly higher.
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