Turkey ETF Holding Up Well Following Quake

Natural disasters in emerging markets are obviously tragic for the people involved and they can be perilous for investors, too. In that vein, kudos to the iShares MSCI Turkey Investable Market Index Fund TUR for trading higher by 2.4% as of midday Monday following a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that is responsible for at least 138 deaths. Interesting thing about ETFs and earthquakes is that the combination can often spell opportunity for savvy investors. Look at the iShares MSCI New Zealand Investable Market Index Fund ENZL. A massive quake struck New Zealand in March, sending ENZL from the $28.60 area to around $27.10. Less than 50 days later, ENZL was trading over $32. In late February 2010, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake ravaged Chile. Over the next month, the iShares MSCI Chile Investable Market Index Fund ECH slid just $3 and by early September 2010, ECH was trading over $71 compared to around $56 at the time of the quake. An earthquake that struck Indonesia in October 2009 resulted in about 500 deaths and a haircut of about 10% for the Market Vectors Indonesia ETF IDX taking the ETF down to the $18.40 area. Indeed, that was a buying opportunity. IDX had surged about 33% by April 2010. There are always exceptions. The iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund EWJ today trades pennies below its March earthquake low. Still, it would appear earthquakes are not as devastating to country-specific ETFs as one might assume. In the case of the iShares MSCI Turkey Investable Market Index Fund, the ETF has just broken some stiff resistance around $47.50 and could run into the mid-50s before being slowed by another resistance area.