The iShares MSCI Poland Investable Market Index Fund (NYSE:EPOL) outperformed all other non-leveraged, non-inverse exchange traded products in the U.S. today on a percentage basis, producing a +3.7% one-day return and outperforming the wider markets by a total of 2.83 percentage points.
Behind The Gains
EPOL closed today at $20.20 per share, up $0.72 (+3.70%). Putting this move in context, the S&P 500 index — largely considered the most popular and useful benchmark for equity performance — closed up $1.97 (+0.87%) on the day.
EPOL’s trading volume today was a total of 380,122 shares, which was a decrease of 10% versus its average daily trading volume of 423,276. Rising trading volume generally an indicator of increased demand for a particular security, and is typically associated with a specific news event or trend that draws investors into or out of specific asset classes, or sectors or subsectors within those classes.
Including any dividends as well as today’s gains, EPOL has now returned a total of 11.48% year-to-date, versus a 2.7% gain in the S&P 500 during the same timeframe. Clearly, the Polish markets are breaking out relative to U.S. equities.
A Look Under The Hood
iShares MSCI Poland Investable Market Index Fund is an Equity-focused product issued by BlackRock. Its expense ratio of 0.62% makes it the #76 cheapest ETF among 89 total funds in the European Equities ETFs category.
EPOL currently boasts $192.50M in assets under management (AUM), placing it #25 of 89 ETFs in its category, and #676 of 1922 total ETFs in the U.S. exchange traded universe. While a relatively small fund in terms of assets, EPOL does have decent daily volume.
The investment objective of the iShares MSCI Poland Investable Market Index Fund ETF seeks to track the investment results of a broad-based index composed of Polish equities. Today’s gains came following a Polish central bank’s claims that it would keep monetary policy loose for up to two years if necessary, in order to boost economic growth.
EPOL SMART Grade
EPOL currently has an ETF Daily News SMART Grade of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #24 of 91 funds in the European Equities ETFs category.