The South American country of Colombia is renowned for its fine coffee and addictive salsa music. And now, investors can participate in another facet of Colombia — its stock market.
New York-based Global X Management Company has just introduced the GlobalX/InterBolsa FTSE Colombia ETF (GXG). The fund charges annual expenses of 0.86 percent and is the first U.S.-listed ETF to target this Andean nation.
Popular ETFs that target South American stocks like the iShares S&P Latin America 40 Index Fund (ILF) and the SPDR S&P Emerging Latin America ETF (GML) do not contain market exposure to Colombian stocks. ILF and GML both have Brazil, Mexico and Chile as their largest country positions.
The underlying index for GXG follows a basket of 20 Colombian stocks that are selected for their high liquidity. After stocks have been passively selected, they're weighted according to their market capitalization. Top companies inside the index include oil firm Ecopetrol, banking group Bancolombia and cement producer Cementos Argos. The index is maintained by the FTSE Group.
