Sell in May and go away? Well, that wasnâ??t very good advice this year, especially if you were allocated to emerging markets and, in particular, India and Russia.
The table below shows the top-performing exchange-traded funds (ETFs) during May (excluding leveraged funds). As you can see, the list is dominated by India, with returns of more than 22% in the top three India-centric funds.
| Ticker | Name | Return | Assets (in $millions) |
| SCIN | India Small Cap ETF | 23.53% | 20.40 |
| SCIF | India Small-Cap Index ETF | 23.12% | 110.35 |
| INXX | India Infrastructure ETF | 22.72% | 16.50 |
| SMIN | MSCI India Small Cap Index Fund | 18.83% | 5.37 |
| RSXJ | Market Vectors Russia Small-Cap ETF | 15.08% | 16.19 |
| ERUS | iShares MSCI Russia Capped ETF | 13.53% | 388.08 |
| RBL | SPDR S&P Russia ETF | 12.88% | 33.36 |
| RSX | Market Vectors Russia ETF | 12.61% | 1,187.90 |
| EPI | India Earnings Fund | 11.87% | 1,022.03 |
| INCO | India Consumer ETF | 11.13% | 4.47 |
The gains were so good in the small-cap segment of the Indian market that we were able to close out a profit of nearly 27% in the India Small-Cap Index ETF (SCIF) in the Successful ETF Investing newsletter advisory service. Moreover, we captured that gain in just three weeks to serve as a testament to very good timing, as well as the power of country-specific ETFs in hot sectors.
Read more about tracking the best ETFs in May at Eagle Daily Investor.
