Saudi Arabia and Qatar country ETFs have gained more than 20% over the last year!

Saudi Arabia ETF (KSA): +23% since Jan 1, 2018

Qatar ETF (QAT): +24% since Jan 1, 2018

These nations are highly associated with energy: Saudi Arabia primarily known as a top oil exporter, Qatar is known as being a top natural gas exporter.

So we’d expect the ETFs to be biased to energy companies. But this isn’t the case. The top ten holdings of the Qatar ETF shows ZERO energy companies. Mostly banks in Qatar’s top 10 holdings. Similar story with Saudi Arabia: KSA’s top ten holdings are mostly banks with the number 1 holding being Saudi Basic Industries which is a diversified chemical company (15% weighting).

Middle Eastern banks and financials are where the heat is… -Harry