iShares MSCI World ex-USA UCITS ETF

What this fund is

iShares MSCI World ex-USA UCITS ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from iShares, traded under the ticker XUES (ISIN IE000ZDDJWZ5). One trade buys a whole basket of holdings, so your money is spread out instead of riding on a single company. In plain terms it is about owning small slices of companies, so you share in their growth when they do well — and their falls when they don't, spread broadly across markets worldwide. Rather than a manager picking stocks, it simply replicates the MSCI World index — the passive, low-cost approach, and its largest holdings include ASML HOLDING NV, HSBC HOLDINGS PLC and ROYAL BANK OF CANADA. With about 793 holdings (the ten largest ≈ 12.6%), your money is diversified rather than concentrated in a handful of names.

Its biggest country exposures are ~21.3% Japan, ~13% United Kingdom and ~12% Canada. By industry it concentrates most in ~27% Financials and ~17.8% Industrials. Funds like this are commonly chosen by investors who want a regular cash income stream rather than reinvesting everything for growth. Its ongoing charge (TER) is 0.15% a year — about €15 a year on a €10,000 holding, taken automatically from the fund. It is a distributing share class — dividends are paid to you as cash rather than reinvested.

It holds the underlying investments directly (physical replication); it is domiciled in Ireland and UCITS-regulated, a European standard built to protect everyday investors and trades in USD. Its price has swung about 12% over the past year, which describes how much its price tends to move rather than whether it is good. It launched in 2026. As with any investment, its value can go down as well as up, and past performance is not a guide to future results. (Fund data sourced from iShares.)