ETF performance round-up for 2011

By Prieur du Plessis, on January 3rd, 2012 posted in: Investment, Money, Natural gas

How did the key ETFs across asset classes perform during 2011? The table below comes courtesy of Bespoke Investment Group, highlighting the U.S.-based ETFs on the left-hand side, and the foreign ones in the top right-hand corner.

A few interesting observations are:

1. The U.S. equity indices clearly outperformed their foreign counterparts.

2. Developed markets showed emerging markets a clean pair of heels.

3. Bonds fared much better than equities, with the top-performing ETF on the entire list the 20-Year+ Treasury ETF TLT gaining 28.82%.

4. The worst performing ETF was natural gas UNG with a decline of 46.09%.

5. Notwithstanding its $350 decline in the latter part of the year, the gold ETF GLD still managed a respectable gain of almost 10% for the year.

6. As far as the S&P sectors are concerned, defensive sectors such as Utilities XLU, Consumer Staples XLP and Health Care XLV were top performers, with Financials XLF, Materials XLB and Telecom IYZ at the bottom end of the ranking.