ETF Spotlight: Global Agriculture

ETF spotlight on the PowerShares Global Agriculture Portfolio (NYSEArca: PAGG), part of an ongoing series.

Assets: $109.7 million.

Objective: The PowerShares Global Agriculture Portfolio tries to reflect the performance of the NASDAQ OMX Global Agriculture Index, which follows the performance of the largest, most liquid globally traded companies engaged in agriculture and farming-related industries.

Holdings: Top holdings include: Potash Corp of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) 8.6%, Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) 8.5%, Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) 8.1%, Syngenta AG (NYSE: SYT) 7.8% and Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM) 6.1%.

What You Should Know:

• Invesco PowerShares sponsors the fund.
• PAGG has an expense ratio of 0.75%.
• The ETF has 51 holdings and the top 10 make up 60.8% of the overall portfolio.
• Market capitalization and style allocations include: large-cap growth 58.0%, large-cap value 15.7%, mid-cap growth 5.4%, mid-cap value 16.8%, small-cap growth 1.9% and small-cap value 2.3%.
• Country allocations include: U.S. 36.7%, Canada 16.5%, Switzerland 7.8%, Singapore 6.4%, Malaysia 6.3%, Germany 4.8%, Australia 4.6%, Norway 4.5%, Israel 4.5% and Indonesia 2.6%.
• PAGG has a 12-month yield of 1.29%.
• The fund is up 5.7% over the past month, down 0.7% over the last three months and up 9.3% year-to-date.

The Latest News:

• Congress is dragging its feet in passing the farm bill as drought ravages crops in the Midwest. [Corn Prices Lead Agriculture ETFs on Drought Forecast]
• “Inaction means economic, nutritional and employment crisis throughout our rural communities,” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, said, reports Jim Abrams for Huffington Post.
• Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has urged Congress to act on the farm bill and revive expired disaster assistance programs in light of the worst drought in 24 years.
• Last month, the Senate passed a 5-year $500 billion package that made drastic changes to the federal safety net programs.
• Droughts across the globe may cut corn harvests by 60 million metric tons,Bloomberg reports.
• “We’re seeing two very big holes in the grain production side,” Deane said in the report, referring to losses in the U.S. and the Black Sea. “Overall, we’re likely to see further gains for grains and oilseeds.”

PowerShares Global Agriculture Portfolio

For past stories in this series, visit our ETF Spotlight category.

Max Chen contributed to this article.

Original Article Here