Your Mexican Portfolio
By Hector Morales August 15, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Diversification, ETFs and you

Lecture
How to Handle Your Money in Mexico
Tue, Aug 19, 2pm
Sala Quetzal
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
Free (in Spanish)

Diversification is the golden rule for investments and it becomes more important in the current times of high volatility.

In 2004, one of the biggest managers of funds in the world, Barclays Global Investors, brought ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds) to the Mexican Stock Exchange under their brand iShares.

There are 63 global ETFs listed in the Mexican Bolsa that can be operated through the SIC (Sistema Internacional de Cotizaciones). They are not widely traded; in 2007 they represented only 11 percent of the total volume of operations in the Bolsa, but each day, more and more people are interested in this kind of investment. This instrument gives the investor the possibility of investing in other countries, sectors, regions and even track the price of some commodities.

Diversification in these instruments is implicit; with one title you are actually participating in a basket of equities.

Mexico was the first country in Latin America to have four internal indexes and these are:

-iShares IPC CompMX Total Return TRAC (ICMTRAC)

Has the 60 largest companies listed in the Bolsa and tracks the market (IPC). 

This ETF separates into two others which are:

-iShares IPC LargeCap Total Return TRAC (ILCTRAC)

Tracks the 20 largest companies from the Bolsa

-iShares IPC MidCap Total Return TRAC (IMCTRAC)

Tracks the companies from 21 to 40 in cap size from the Total Return Index


The last ETF is a sector tracker:

-iShares Habita Total Return TRAC (IHBTRAC)

It is composed of the six largest home construction companies in Mexico.



This lecture is being given by the manager of Actinver-Lloyd from the Querétaro office and will address topics such as financial systems in Mexico, security in your investments in Mexico, new tax on cash deposits and financial tips.

This lecture is in Spanish; another will be scheduled in English for the expat audience.

Hector Morales Ortiz is the manager of the brokerage department of Actinver-Lloyd in San Miguel. Contact him at hmoraleso@actinver.com.mx.