EWW vs KSA

EWWAiShares MSCI Mexico ETF

KSACiShares MSCI Saudi Arabia ETF

In short

EWW Mexico in one ticker, doing that job since 1996. Roughly 40 of the country's biggest listed names, capped so no single company runs the show, for 0.50% a year.

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

EWW The fund seeks to track an index composed of Mexican equities and provides targeted exposure to companies in Mexico.

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

• EWW 0.50% a year, below the typical single-country emerging-market fund. Cheap is not the pitch here, but you are not paying a premium for the exposure.
• A billion-dollar-plus fund that trades actively, which is why it has long been the default way US investors get Mexico exposure in a brokerage account.
• The 25/50 index rules keep any one issuer from swallowing the portfolio, a real safeguard in a market where a handful of giants dominate the exchange.ishares.com
• Tracks its MSCI Mexico index tightly and ranks among the strongest builds in the single-country emerging-market group.

• 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

• EWW About 40 stocks, one country, one currency. Peso moves and Mexican politics land straight in the return, with no diversification to soften them.
• FLMX tracks Mexico for 0.19%. If cost is the deciding factor, that gap is the trade-off against EWW's deeper trading and longer track record.
• Distributions come once or twice a year, not monthly. This is an equity exposure vehicle, not a steady income line.

• 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 EWW profile⁠

Full KSA profile⁠