EWM vs KSA

EWMBiShares MSCI Malaysia ETF

KSACiShares MSCI Saudi Arabia 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.

KSA One ticker, one country. KSA holds roughly 120 Saudi-listed companies through a capped MSCI index and has been doing it since 2015: a pure play on the Saudi market, not a sliver inside a broad emerging-markets fund.

Stated mandate

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

KSA The fund seeks to track an index of Saudi Arabian equities and provides targeted exposure to companies in Saudi Arabia.

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

• KSA Targeted exposure to Saudi Arabian equities in a US-listed, US-traded wrapper, tracking the MSCI Saudi Arabia IMI 25/50 Index.
• About 120 names reaching from large caps down to small (the IMI part), with the index's 25/50 caps limiting how big any one holding can grow.
• One of the more actively traded funds in the single-country emerging-market group, with assets in the hundreds of millions behind it.
• Listed in 2015, a long tenure for a niche single-country fund, and the portfolio has held closely to what the mandate says it owns.

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.

• KSA 0.75% a year sits above the 0.59% median for single-country emerging-market funds, and well above the cheapest in that group (FLMX at 0.19%).
• Everything rides on one market. Saudi-specific news moves the entire fund, with no other country in the basket to soften it.
• Inside its single-country emerging-market peer group it sits in the lower tier, mainly on fee and on how closely results have matched the index.

Full EWM profile⁠

Full KSA profile⁠