Putin in ETFs Hits Investors as Assets Plunge

Investors are abandoning WisdomTree Investments Inc.’s flagship emerging-markets exchange-traded fund at the fastest pace ever, and the fund provider has President Vladimir Putin to blame.

Asset managers have pulled a record $1.59 billion from the WisdomTree Emerging Markets Equity Income Fund in the past year, the sixth-most among more than 1,000 U.S. ETFs tracked by Bloomberg. Russian companies, which have plunged more than 40 percent this year in dollar terms, make up 17 percent of the ETF’s holdings, five times as much as in MSCI Inc.’s industry benchmark. WisdomTree’s Emerging Markets SmallCap Dividend Fund, where Russian stocks comprise 0.1 percent, posted an outflow of less than $270,000.