INVTGEN060 The World Is Your Market: Invest Like It (400 words)

This article outlines the differences between two index funds – one Australian and one international. It discusses the benefits to be gained from diversification through investing in overseas share markets.

Despite a slowdown in Australian economic and productivity growth in the last five years, Australia’s economy is usually considered strong and resilient when compared with other developed nations. Given our economic strength, why would anyone want to invest anywhere else?

To answer this question, let's consider what stocks might be included in a share portfolio with an international focus.

For simplicity purposes, we will look into the portfolios of a leading provider of index managed funds and their top 10 holdings. These funds tend to be passively rather than actively traded, and seek to reflect their chosen share index over the medium-to-long term.