Five Asia-Pacific ETFs Your Broker Forgot to Mention (GMF, EPHE, INCO)

By number of countries, the Asia-Pacific region is simply massive with about 50 nations territories fitting the bill as "Asia-Pacific." That number includes highly developed economies such as Japan, conservative emerging markets such as South Korea and major emerging powers such as China and India. In other words, there are plenty of Asia-Pacific ETFs to go around and as of Monday all of the Asia-Pacific ETFs that popped up on the ETFdb screener were showing positive year-to-date returns. Even with the solid returns and the rapidly growing economies they track, some Asia-Pacific ETFs remain under the radar plays. Here are a few your broker may have neglected to mention. SPDR S&P Small Cap Emerging Asia Pacific ETF GMFS The SPDR S&P Small Cap Emerging Asia Pacific ETF is a new ETF, so that might be the reason investors haven't heard much about it. GMFS made its debut in January. While thinly traded (just 900 shares per day average), the fund has managed to gain almost 12% since its debut. Tracking the S&P Asia Pacific Emerging Under USD 2 Billion Index, GMFS holds almost 500 stocks, none of which receive a weight of more than 0.73%. If there is one complaint about GMFS it is that Taiwan and China account for roughly two-thirds of the fund's country weight. Arguably, there are enough liquid Asia-Pacific small-caps for the likes of Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand to figure more prominently in this ETF. SPDR S&P Emerging Asia Pacific ETF GMF The SPDR S&P Emerging Asia Pacific ETF is the large-cap equivalent of the aforementioned GMFS. While this ETF doesn't garner heaps of press, it has been around five years and it might surprise some folks to learn GMF has over $491 million in assets under management. The ETF is up over 10% year-to-date, but its country composition is plagued by the same issue as its small-cap counterpart: China and Taiwan account for about two-thirds of the fund's weight. iShares MSCI Philippines Investable Market Index Fund EPHE EPHE does garners a fair amount of praise so calling this fund ignored isn't entirely accurate. The ETF traded around $25 in early January when we said it would be one of the best non-China Asia ETFs to trade this year. There is still upside with this fund as the Philippines has a growing GDP, tame inflation and a stable government that might act to increase domestic spending in the name of improving a dour poverty situation. All could be catalysts for more upside in this ETF. EGShares India Consumer ETF INCO Year-to-date, India ETFs look great, but those statistics are a tad deceiving because there has been serious profit-taking in these funds over the past few weeks. INCO is no exception, having fallen 6% in the past month, but with the ETF now trading at just over $19, that might be the buying opportunity some traders were looking for to position themselves for a run to $21 by the lone ETF devoted to the Indian consumer. Global X China Industrials ETF CHII The Global X China Industrials ETF makes the list for a simple reason and believe us, it's not because of its recent performance. Predictably, CHII has been rocked by the recent spate of glum economic news from China. Said another way, this isn't one of the ETFs you want to cozy up to when China is forecasting slower GDP growth, announcing a surprise February trade deficit or reporting another bad PMI number. All that said, the Global X China Industrials ETF would be one of the prime beneficiaries if Chinese policymakers move to cut interest rates, perhaps fooling the world into thinking there is no hard landing after all.