Euro zone's celebration of the end of a prolonged recession last year was really short-lived as the region again got itself entrapped in a slowdown and deflation worries from mid 2014. Most of the foremost nations of the continent are presently dragging their feet in terms of economic growth, with some slipping into another recession.

To fight these issues, the European Central Bank (ECB) is resorting to every possible step including ultra-low policy rates, negative deposit rates and launch of a program to buy back asset-backed securities and covered bonds. If this was not enough, the ECB indicated that it would implement a broad-based QE measure should the region need it (read: Euro Zone Gets QE Hints, 3 ETFs to Buy on Stimulus Hopes).

While these measures should boost the stock market rally, a flush of liquidity is having an adverse impact on the currency, the Euro.  The currency lost about 8% (as of December 12, 2014) against the greenback in the last six months. The plunge was more prevalent given the dollar's strength during the said phase.

Thanks to the Euro slide and the possibility of a strong dollar following the probable hike in interest rates next year, investors are starting to embrace currency-hedged ETFs in droves. There isn't anything more unfortunate than seeing one's otherwise impressive portfolio choices fail because of soft foreign currency (read: Hedged European ETFs in Focus: Best Choice for Europe Now?).

Bearing this sentiment, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management recently rolled out a hedged version focused on Europe recently, (DBEZ – ETF report). Let's discuss the fund in greater detail below:

DBEZ in Detail

The fund looks to follow the MSCI EMU IMI u.s. Dollar Hedged Index to provide exposure to more than 600 of the largest European companies. As of November 5, 2014, the index includes 682 securities with an average market cap ranging from about $6.09 billion to about $23.96 million.
 
The product is a highly diversified with no stock accounting for more than 2.78% of the portfolio. Among individual holdings, Bayer AG-Reg takes the top spot, followed by Total SA and Sanofi with, respectively, 2.62% and 2.56% exposure.

Sector wise, Financials gets the highest exposure with 22.8% of the portfolio. Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, Materials and Consumer Staples also get double-digit investments, while Health Care gets the least exposure with only 4.8% of the basket.

As far as country exposure is concerned, Germany (29.55%) gets the top priority while France (29.65%), Spain (11.57%) and Italy (7.86%) take up the next three positions. The fund charges 45 bps in fees.