EWS vs FLGB

EWSBiShares MSCI Singapore ETF

FLGBAFranklin FTSE United Kingdom ETF

In short

EWS One of the 1996 originals, still doing the same job: Singapore's large and mid caps in one ticker. Index rules cap any single issuer at 25%, which matters in a market this top-heavy.

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

EWS The fund seeks to track an index composed of Singaporean equities, providing targeted exposure to companies in Singapore.

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

Why people hold it

• EWS Launched in March 1996, making it one of the first single-country ETFs ever listed in the US. Decades later it is still a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively.aaii.com
• One ticker for the Singapore market: it tracks the MSCI Singapore 25/50 Index, the large and mid cap slice, with no stock picking and no hunting down foreign listings.ishares.com
• The 25/50 index rules are a real feature: no issuer above 25% of the index, and issuers over 5% capped at 50% combined, reset at quarterly rebalances.msci.com
• Sits in the upper half of the developed single-country group, with the trading depth and operational backing that come with a long-tenured BlackRock fund.

• 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

• EWS The 0.50% expense ratio sits right at the middle of its peer group, but index rivals such as FLAU and FLKR charge 0.09%. Country access here is not the cheap end of the shelf.
• One country, one compact basket. BlackRock notes funds concentrated in a specific market or sector can be more volatile than the broad market.ishares.com
• Cash comes back once or twice a year, not monthly, and the holdings trade in Singapore dollars, so currency swings ride along with the stocks.ishares.com

• 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 EWS profile⁠

Full FLGB profile⁠