The month of July was chockablock with economic events with some crashing the global market and some showering smart gains on it. A resolution of the one-and-half month long Greek debt deal drama, upheaval in Chinese shares, the long-standing guesswork on the Fed's liftoff timeline and the takeoff of the all-important earnings season dominated headlines throughout the month.
The combined impact of these events led the largest S&P 500-focused U.S. ETF SPY to add about 1.6%, Nasdaq-oriented ETF QQQ to rise 0.9% but Dow-based ETF DIA to shed about 0.1% in July. iShares MSCI All Country World Index Fund (ACWI – ETF report) advanced about 0.1% in the month. Overall, the global market was anything but great.
Investors might want to check out the top and worst performing ETFs of July to see which products sailed through rough waters and the ones that sank.
ETF Winners of July
Market Vectors India Small-Cap Index ETF (SCIF) – up 12.22%
After rough trading all through in the second quarter, the Indian market bounced back from late June. Reduced worries over monsoon deficiency, a timely correction in the stock market and rising domestic investments did the trick. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) too slashed interest rates thrice this year with the latest cut seen on June 2. Soft crude price in July was another market driver (read: 3 India ETFs Surging Back to Health).
Though many ETFs focused on India posted solid gains, small-cap ETF SCIF emerged as a clear winner surging more than 12% in the month as small-cap equities are normally more focused on the domestic market.
WisdomTree Japan Hedged Health Care Fund (DXJH) – up 10.43%
Japan equities are on a tear this year as the yen is falling against the greenback which is shoring up Japan's export-centric corporate world. Among these, Japan health care ETF gained special attention returning over 10.4%. The fund's currency-hedged technique gave it an edge as this mitigated negative currency translation during the month (read: Flurry of New Currency Hedged ETFs Fuels Price War).
Medical Breakthroughs ETF (SBIO) – up 9.92%
