Opinion on  iShares MSCI South Africa Index Fund (EZA)     Sector: Financial  >  Industry: Misc. Financial Services
Cry the Beloved Country

This is a gold play straight up.  I'm taking advantage of a dip caused by electricity problems a few months ago. 

This ETF consists largely of South African gold and platinum miners.  There are also significant holdings in energy, telecom,  and banking.  The average P/E of the companies is  about 12, so it's pretty cheap on an earnings basis.  WARNING:  This is a highly volatile ETF, even amongst emerging markets ETFs.  It will rise and fall with the price of gold and platinum as they make up about 2/5ths of the holdings.  It's down about 13% YTD, so I think that this is a nice entry point.

The earthquake in China last week has set of tremendous demand for basic materials needed for construction.  Specifically, they will need a great deal of coking coal in order to make steel.  This is an important South African export.  Sasol mining, a division of Sasol Ltd., is the world's seventh largest coal company.  Sasol(SSL) makes up nearly 14% of the ETF.