iShares MSCI EM CTB Enhanced ESG UCITS ETF

What this fund is

iShares MSCI EM CTB Enhanced ESG UCITS ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from iShares, traded under the ticker EDG2 (ISIN IE00BHZPJ239). In a single purchase you get a diversified basket of holdings rather than a stake in just one business. 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 across its target market. Rather than a manager picking stocks, it simply replicates the MSCI Emerging Markets index — the passive, low-cost approach, and its largest holdings include TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS LTD and SK HYNIX INC. Spread across roughly 1250 holdings (the ten largest ≈ 40%), no one position makes or breaks the fund.

By geography it is weighted towards ~27.9% Taiwan, ~22.9% Korea (South) and ~18.9% China. By industry it concentrates most in ~43.9% Technology and ~18.6% Financials. Investors often use a broad fund like this as a long-term 'core' holding — a single building block that covers much of a global portfolio in one trade. Its ongoing charge (TER) is 0.18% a year — about €18 a year on a €10,000 holding, taken automatically from the fund. Income such as dividends is automatically reinvested inside the fund (an accumulating share class), so returns compound without you doing anything.

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 28.3% over the past year, which describes how much its price tends to move rather than whether it is good. It launched in 2019. 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.)