What are we looking for?
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with momentum.
The search
We screened for the top 15 gainers for the first six months of this year, excluding leveraged bull and bear ETFs.
What did we find?
Sparkling gold ETFs.
With volatile markets and major stock indexes in the red for the first half of this year, owning gold through a stock, bullion or commodity ETF would have been a good move.
With gold futures surging nearly 14 per cent in the first six months of the year, the iShares CDN Gold Sector ETF rose to the top of the heap with a 14.6-per-cent return. Barrick Gold, Goldcorp and Newmont Mining are names that make up 43 per cent of this ETF. The HBP COMEX Gold ETF, which aims to track the performance of gold futures, and the Claymore Gold Bullion ETF each gained about 12 per cent.
The HAP Seasonal Rotation ETF, which invests in ETFs that track stock markets and industry sectors during periods of seasonal strength, was also among the leaders with a 6.5-per-cent return.
This actively managed ETF now has 80 per cent in cash after being full invested mostly in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF for five days around U.S. Memorial Day to take advantage of U.S. stocks that typically rise during that holiday period, said Don Vialoux, who, along with Brooke Thackray, is a research analyst on the fund.
During the first six months, the fund profited partly from investing in several U.S.-listed resource ETFs and the iShares S&P/TSX Capped Energy ETF. They benefited from "the time of the year when the construction industry is getting going with the spring building," Mr. Vialoux said. "Also, this year, there was the economic stimulus programs ... around the world but particularly in North America."
Mr. Vialoux expects some cash will be deployed soon into gold and agriculture ETFs because their sectors will be entering a seasonally strong period. "Once you get into the favourable period for the markets from Oct. 28 to May 5, then we are fully invested," he said.
Next week, we look at the top performers for the same period among mutual and retail venture capital funds.
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| The 15 best-performing Canadian-listed ETFs this year to June 30 | ||||||||||
| As of June 30 | Latest | % rtn | % rtn | |||||||
| Name | Symbol | CategoryAssets ($ mil) | MER | YTD | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | |
| iShares CDN Gold Sector Index | XGD-T | Precious Metals Equity | 1255.8 | 0.55 | 14.6 | 7.0 | 1.0 | -4.5 | 40.8 | 21.7 |
| HBP COMEX Gold ETF | HUG-T | Alt. Strategies | 10.3 | 1.28 | 12.3 | |||||
| Claymore Gold Bullion ETF | CGL-T | Miscellaneous | 467.4 | 0.50 | 12.0 | |||||
| HBP COMEX Silver ETF | HUZ-T | Alt. Strategies | 6.4 | 1.28 | 8.7 | |||||
| HAP Seasonal Rotation ETF | HAC-T | Alt. Strategies | 16.6 | 6.5 | ||||||
| BMO Mid Federal Bond Index ETF | ZFM-T | Cdn Fixed Income | 3.1 | 5.3 | ||||||
| iShares CDN REIT Sector Index | XRE-T | Real Estate Equity | 890.2 | 0.55 | 5.1 | 53.2 | -38.3 | -6.0 | 26.8 | 24.3 |
| HBP S&P/TSX Energy Inverse ETF | HIE-T | Alt. Strategies | 3.1 | 1.28 | 4.7 | |||||
| Claymore Advantaged CDN Bond ETF | CAB-T | Cdn Fixed Income | 43.5 | 3.5 | ||||||
| iShares CDN Income Trust Sector Idx | XTR-T | Cdn Incm Trust Equity | 206.3 | 0.55 | 3.4 | 40.4 | -25.9 | 6.0 | -3.2 | |
| iShares CDN Short Bond Index | XSB-T | Cdn Shrt Tm Fixed Incm | 1811.1 | 0.25 | 2.0 | 4.3 | 8.0 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 3.0 |
| BMO Short Corporate Bond Index ETF | ZCS-T | Cdn Shrt Tm Fixed Incm | 31.5 | 2.0 | ||||||
| BMO Short Federal Bond Index ETF | ZFS-T | Cdn Shrt Tm Fixed Incm | 19.5 | 2.0 | ||||||
| BMO Short Provincial Bond Index ETF | ZPS-T | Cdn Shrt Tm Fixed Incm | 14.9 | 1.9 | ||||||
| Claymore 1-5 Yr Lad. Corp Bond ETF | CBO-T | Cdn Fixed Income | 616.8 | 1.8 | ||||||
| S&P/TSX Total Return | -2.5 | 35.1 | -33.0 | 9.8 | 17.3 | 24.1 | ||||
| S&P 500 composite ($ Cdn) | -6.3 | 5.5 | -23.8 | -12.2 | 13.6 | -0.2 | ||||
| Source: Globe Investor |
© 2007 The Globe and Mail. All rights reserved.