The $4.9 billion WisdomTree Emerging Markets Equity Income Fund was 68.4 percent more volatile than its index from May 22 to June 24, the second-highest in the ranking. The top holdings of the fund, which focuses on dividend-paying stocks, are Gazprom OAO followed by Rosneft Oil Co. The fund reached a discount of 2.9 percent on June 20. Stuart Bell, a spokesman for New York-based WisdomTree Investments Inc., declined to comment on the volatility.
iShares Fund
The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF, which had withdrawals of $3.9 billion in June, was 52.6 percent more volatile than its index last month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
BlackRock said June 29 it was planning a program to boost “investor education” to help clients better understand how ETFs work.
“It is not unusual that the ETF has higher volatility than the underlying index, in periods of extreme global market volatility,” said Robert Nestor, head of global product marketing at iShares, which is the world’s largest ETF provider. “The volatility in the price of the ETFs reflects investors’ reaction to market news and changes in sentiment, much of which occurs while U.S. markets are open, but emerging markets are closed.”