Industry Updates

The ETF Ashes: Who comes out on top this year?

George Geddes

a man in a white uniform jumping in the air

The greatest rivalry in cricket, and possibly in sport, kicks off this morning as England and Australia will once again do battle at Edgbaston, in a contest that seems to be as old as time itself.

While England head into the contest as the reigning World Cup champions and slight favourites, this is one of the closest match-ups in years with the Aussies believing they have a great chance of taking the urn back 'down under'.

In light of this, ETF Stream has taken a look at how their respective ETFs have done so far this year. Is it England’s iShares Core FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (ISF) or Australia’s BetaShares Australia 200 ETF (A200) that is leading the way and what impact will this have on the cricket we are going to see this summer?

ISF tracks the FTSE 100, the 100 largest companies in the UK by market cap that are listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Its largest holdings include banking behemoth HSBC, which makes up 7% of the fund, and oil giants Royal Dutch Shell and BP which make up 5.8% and 5.4% of the fund, respectively.

BetaShares’ A200 tracks the Solactive Australia 200 Index and is comprised of the 200 largest companies in Australia.

Its largest holdings are also in the banking and oil industries such as the Commonwealth Bank of Australia at 8.4%, BHP Group at 7% and Westpac Banking at 5.6%.

When it comes to assets under management, ISF, which launched in April 2000, comes out on top with £6.9bn invested in the product. This is significantly ahead of A200 which has $650m AUM, having only launched in May 2018.

However, when compared on performances, the Australian A200 is leading this year so far having produced returns of 22.8%, year-to-date. Over the same period, ISF has only produced 15.5%.

chart, line chart

With both ETFs coming in with management fees of only 7bps, it is a close call but if past performances count for anything then the Australians might win it by an edge.

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Image source: Creative commons, England Cricket Board

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