There are not many people who are interested in investing in Africa, but this is a place that has been generating a little interest of late as an investment destination.
There are not a lot of options as far as ETFs that focus on Africa, but, here are a few that do give you exposure to the continent.
Van Eck Africa ETF (AFK): This is an Africa ETF that invests in equities in the entire continent. I have written previously about Van Eck ETF here.
MSCI South Africa Index Fund (EZA): It is an index fund that tracks South African equities. It tracks a capitalization weighted index that aims to capture 85% of the total market capitalization. The expense ratio of the fund is 0.63%.
SPDR S&P Emerging Middle East and Africa ETF (GAF): As the name suggests, this is not an ETF that is focused entirely on Africa, but will also give you exposure to Middle East. It tracks the S&P Middle East and Africa BMI Index, which is a market capitalization weighted index that defines and measures the investable universe of publicly traded companies domiciled in emerging Middle Eastern and African markets. The gross expense ratio of this fund is 0.59%. The country with the biggest weight is South Africa with 61.6%, followed by Israel with 24.31%, Morocco 7.89% and Egypt 5.53%. (As on 6/30/09)
PowerShares MENA Frontier Countries Portfolio (PMNA): This is an ETF that is more focused on Middle East rather than Africa, but still has some African component. It tracks an index that invests in liquid stocks of companies residing in MENA frontier countries, which include Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco. It has 22.03% allocated to Kuwait, 20.55% to Egypt, 17.28% to Jordan, 16.21% to UAE, 11.67% to Morocco, 7.59% to Qatar and 4.66% to Oman (as on June 30, 2009)
