iShares Global Consumer Staples ETF

What this fund is

iShares Global Consumer Staples ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from iShares, traded under the ticker KXI (ISIN US4642887370). 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 broadly across markets worldwide.

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 0.39% a year — about €39 a year on a €10,000 holding, taken automatically from the fund. It holds the underlying investments directly (physical replication).

Its price has swung about 12.6% over the past year — a gauge of how much the value moves, not a judgement of quality. It launched in 2006. 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.)