EWM vs KPHO

EWMBiShares MSCI Malaysia ETF

KPHOFKraneshares Dragon Capital Vietnam Growth Index ETF

In short

EWM Malaysia in one ticker, running since 1996. EWM tracks the MSCI Malaysia index, a cap-weighted slice of Kuala Lumpur's largest listed companies, and charges less than the typical single-country emerging markets fund.

KPHO Vietnam, run by people who live there. KraneShares hands the stock selection to Dragon Capital, a Vietnam-based manager with three decades on the ground, and wraps it in a published growth index and a US-listed ETF.

Stated mandate

EWM The fund seeks to track an index composed of Malaysian equities.

KPHO The Fund seeks to provide investment results that generally correspond, before fees and expenses, to the performance of its specified equity securities index.

Why people hold it

• EWM Listed in 1996, which puts it among the oldest ETFs still trading. Nearly three decades of doing one job: hold Malaysian equities, track the index.ishares.com
• 0.50% a year, under the median for its single-country emerging markets peer group and below iShares siblings EPOL and EZA at 0.59%.
• Sits in the upper tier of the single-country emerging markets funds we grade, helped by a low fee and a milder volatility profile than much of that group.
• No guesswork about the mandate: BlackRock builds it as a way to express a single-country view on Malaysian companies, and the index name is right on the tin.ishares.com

• KPHO The sub-advisor is Dragon Capital, a Vietnam-based manager the issuer describes as having over 30 years in the market. Local research, not a New York desk squinting at Ho Chi Minh City.kraneshares.comkraneshares.com 2
• It follows the Dragon Capital MerQube Vietnam Growth Index: published rules that pick locally listed Vietnamese companies on fundamental growth criteria rather than a manager's hunches.kraneshares.com
• One ticker gets you locally listed Vietnamese equities inside an ordinary US-listed 1940 Act fund, a market most US brokerage accounts cannot reach directly.kraneshares.com

Worth knowing

• EWM Market-cap weighting in a modest-sized market means a short list of Kuala Lumpur heavyweights drives most of the fund's day-to-day move.stockanalysis.com
• One country, one currency. The holdings trade in ringgit and the fund is unhedged, so currency moves against the dollar land in your return alongside the stocks.ishares.com
• Volume is moderate rather than deep, and payouts arrive once or twice a year instead of quarterly. Limit orders are the friendlier way in and out.

• KPHO The 1.02% fee sits near the top of the single-country emerging-market shelf, where the typical fund charges closer to 0.59%. Local expertise is not priced like an index tracker.
• It listed in December 2025 and began life small and thinly traded, so quotes can be wider than on long-established country funds and there is little live track record yet.
• One country, one currency: Vietnam's market sets the whole result. Distributions come once or twice a year, so this is a growth-shaped holding, not an income stream.

Full EWM profile⁠

Full KPHO profile⁠