EWP vs FLGB

EWPBiShares MSCI Spain ETF

FLGBAFranklin FTSE United Kingdom ETF

In short

EWP Spain in one ticker. Trading since 1996, back when single-country ETFs were a novelty, EWP still does one job: track an index of Spanish equities and hold a capped basket of the country's largest listed companies.

FLGB Britain in one ticker for nine basis points. Franklin's UK tracker follows a capped FTSE index of roughly 110 British companies and charges a small fraction of what the typical index fund in its peer group costs.

Stated mandate

EWP The fund seeks to track an index composed of Spanish equities.

FLGB The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the FTSE UK RIC Capped Index.

Why people hold it

• EWP An ETF-industry original: launched in 1996, decades before most country funds existed, and still running the same plain mandate of tracking an index of Spanish stocks.
• The 25/50 caps in the index do real work in a top-heavy market: no single company can run away with the basket, and the biggest positions are limited as a group.ishares.com
• Undiluted country exposure. No Europe-wide blend, no US filler, just Spanish equities, which makes it a clean single dial for anyone tilting a portfolio toward one market.
• A billion-dollar-plus fund from the biggest ETF shop on the street, which is rare staying power for a single-country wrapper.

• FLGB 0.09% a year, a fraction of the median fee across the index trackers we grade. Cheap is the whole pitch for single-country beta, and this one delivers it.
• One trade, roughly 110 UK companies. A passive, rules-based mandate tied to the FTSE UK RIC Capped Index, running since its 2017 launch.
• Stands in the top quartile of its plain-index-wrapper peer group, and the mandate data behind that read is high confidence.

Worth knowing

• EWP At 0.50% a year it runs above the typical index tracker and many times a broad core fund like VT at 0.06%. One country's worth of exposure carries a premium.
• The stocks trade in euros while the fund trades in dollars, so the currency swing rides along on top of whatever the Spanish market does.
• Volume is moderate rather than heavy, and cash comes once or twice a year instead of quarterly. Limit orders and patience are the tools here.

• FLGB Single-country by design: UK listings only, so there is no cushion from other markets inside the fund. Broad global trackers like VT spread that bet differently.
• Moderately traded rather than a volume monster, so limit orders are the sane way in and out.
• Distributions arrive once or twice a year, not monthly. Income lands in lumps.

Full EWP profile⁠

Full FLGB profile⁠