When I wrote about how NRIs could invest in India last week, one of the options I mentioned was India based ETFs listed in your domestic exchange.
For most NRIs, this is a very convenient method and is useful for others who are interested in gaining exposure to India as well.
There are a number of India based ETFs in the US and in this post I’m going to list them down along with their performance in 2012 as well as what indices they track.
| No. |
ETF |
YTD Return* |
Index |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | EGShares India consumer (INCO) | Â Â 50.25% | Indxx India Consumer Index |
| 2 | iShares S&P India Nifty 50 Index Fund (INDY) |  29.47% | S&P CNX Nifty |
| 3 | India Infrastructure ETFÂ (INXX) | 29.11% | INDXX India Infrastructure Index |
| 4 | EGShares India Small Cap (SCIN) | Â 28.89% | Indxx India Small Cap Index. |
| 5 | India Small Cap Index ETF (SCIF) | 26.5% | Market Vectors India Small-Cap Index |
| 6 | iPath MSCI India Index ETNÂ (INP) | Â 26.89% | MSCI India Total Return Index |
| 7 |  WisdomTree India Earnings Fund (EPI) | 23.93% | WisdomTree India Earnings Index. |
| 8 | PowerShares India Portfolio (PIN) |  13.94% | India Index (Index) |
| 9 | Direxion Daily India Bull 3X Shares (INDL) |  22% | Indus India Index |
| 10 | MSCI India Index Fund (INDA) |  NA | MSCI India Index |
| 11 | MSCI India Small Cap Index Fund (SMIN) | NA | MSCI India Small Cap Index |
*Returns as on Nov 29 2012.
A few points on the table above:
INCO’s Exceptional Performance
EGShares India Consumer (INCO) is unusually up, and I don’t know why that is at the moment, but I will do a follow up post on this unusual gain next week.
Similar Performance
Other than that, most other ETFs are close in returns even though they are quite different in nature, and this is perhaps a bit disappointing for the small cap ETFs because in India, the small caps tend to fall a lot more than the large caps during bear runs so you would hope that the small caps outperform the large caps as well. However, at least for this small time period, that hasn’t been true.
Wide Range of India Based ETFs
I had done such a list some time ago, and at the time there were only three or four ETFs so I am pleasantly surprised to see a lot more options present in the India ETF list today. You have a lot more options to choose from, and they are all quite different from one another.
Conclusion
There are quite a few India based ETFs in the US and at least for American investors who want to invest in India, there is no dearth of options. All these options also mean that you need to research them carefully and understand what you are buying into. INDY is very different from PIN and PIN is very different from INDA. I will do a detailed post on the objective of each of these funds later on in the year, and that will help build a good understanding of what fund to invest in based on your goal.
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