EWM vs VNM

EWMBiShares MSCI Malaysia ETF

VNMDVanEck Vietnam 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.

VNM The US-listed pure play on Vietnam. Since 2009, VanEck has packed roughly 60 Vietnamese stocks into one ticker, with no broad emerging-market wrapper diluting the bet.

Stated mandate

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

VNM The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the MarketVectorTM Vietnam Local 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

• VNM Straight Vietnam, undiluted: the fund tracks the MarketVector Vietnam Local Index, an all-Vietnam equity benchmark, so the entire portfolio moves with that one market.
• Live since 2009, a veteran by single-country emerging-market standards, and it trades actively enough that getting in and out is rarely the hard part.
• Backed by VanEck with assets in the mid-size range, giving it the scale and shelf life that thinly held single-country products often lack.

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.

• VNM At 0.66% a year, it prices above the typical single-country emerging-market fund, and far above budget peers in the group like FLMX at 0.19%.
• About 60 stocks, one country, one currency. Vietnamese policy news and the dong swing this fund far harder than they would a diversified emerging-market holding.
• Its results have followed the index less closely than most funds in its peer group, so what lands in your account can drift from the benchmark's headline figures.

Full EWM profile⁠

Full VNM profile⁠