What are top Australian shares ETFs for 2021? We think the Vaneck Australian Bank ETF (ASX: MVB) and SPDR MSCI Australia Select High Dividend Yield Fund ETF (ASX: SYI) ASX ETFs could be worthy of closer inspection. Here’s why…
Popping the hood on these 2 ETFs
The VanEck MVB ETF provides focused exposure to Australia’s largest industry, the banking sector. This is a low-cost way to invest in the Australian banking industry through a single fund.
The SPDR SYI ETF invests in a diversified portfolio of high-yielding ‘blue chip’ Australian companies – excluding real estate investment trusts (REITs). This ETF tracks the MSCI Australia Select High Dividend Yield Index.
Keep learning about the SYI ETF on our free report page. See the ASX SYI review.
In addition to using our years of experience analysing ETFs, there are simple tricks any investor can use to compare similar ETFs.
The first is fees. Our team uses quant methods to score ETFs based on its fees and costs, then we slice and dice across sectors, strategy types and providers.
We’ll keep it basic and just study the fees. Based on our data for July 2021, the MVB ETF has a management expense ratio (MER) of 0.28% while the SYI ETF’s yearly fee was 0.35%.So MVB comes out on top. That said, a more useful metric to know is the fee quartiles that these ETFs find themselves in (note: quartile 1 is best). For example, any ETF which has a fee below 0.3% would be considered in our first (best) quartile.
Show me the money
It’s time to study the track record. Keep in mind, performance isn’t everything — and past performance is not indicative of future performance. It’s just one part of a much bigger picture. The reason we say performance is not everything is because of volatility of financial markets and the economy from one year to the next. Some ETFs and funds can put in a compelling return one year just to generate subpar returns the next time around. That’s why we prefer three-year or seven-year track records over one-year track records. It can smooth out the temporary performances caused by external factors. Both ETFs have achieved our three-year performance hurdle. As of July 2021, the MVB ETF had an average annual return of 6.49%. During the same time, the SYI ETF returned 9.21%.
Too long, didn’t read (TL;DR)
Be sure to visit our free ASX MVB review or ASX SYI ETF review.
For us, the SYI ETF rates greater against our internal scoring methodology, but only just.
We hope this article helped you analyse ETFs. Don’t forget, there’s a lot more to investing well than what we just outlined (risks, diversification, other potentially better ETFs, etc.). Our analyst team at Rask Australia spends months looking at new ASX investments (it’s our day job!). To make your life easier, you can get the name of our team’s top ETF pick for 2021 in a free report. Keep reading to find out how to get our analyst’s report emailed to you right now…
