Top Australian shares ETF review: SPDR OZR & SPDR SYI

The SPDR S&P/ASX 200 Resource Fund ETF (ASX: OZR) and SPDR MSCI Australia Select High Dividend Yield Fund ETF (ASX: SYI) are top ETFs. Let’s take a quick look at both.

A look at SPDR OZR and the SYI ETF

The SPDR OZR ETF invests in resources companies from within the ASX 200 and aims to track the S&P/ASX 200 Resources Index.

The SPDR SYI ETF invests in a diversified portfolio of high-yielding ‘blue chip’ Australian companies – excluding real estate investment trusts (REITs). This ETF tracks the MSCI Australia Select High Dividend Yield Index.

Learn more about the SYI ETF with our full analysis page. Get our SYI review.

a gif of 4 etf reports

So where do we start analysing SYI and OZR? In addition to using our years of experience analysing ETFs to ‘get a feel’ for the ETF, there are simple checks and balances our team uses to compare similar ETFs.

The first is fees. We score ETFs based on their management fees and costs and we take into account the spread. We’ll then compare these ‘all in’ fees and costs across sectors, strategy types and ETF providers.

We’ll keep it straightforward and just study the fees. Based on our data for July 2022, the OZR ETF has a management expense ratio (MER) of 0.34% while the SYI ETF’s yearly fee was 0.35%.So OZR comes out on top. That said, a more useful metric to know is the fee quartiles that these ETFs find themselves in (note: quartile 1 is best). For example, any ETF which has a fee below 0.3% would be considered in our first (best) quartile.

Track record

Let’s look at the past results. Keep in mind, performance isn’t everything — and past performance is not indicative of future performance. It’s just one part of a much bigger picture. The reason we say performance is not everything is because of volatility of financial markets and the economy from one year to the next. Some ETFs and funds can put in a strong return one year just to generate weak returns the next time around. That’s why we prefer three-year or seven-year track records over one-year track records. It can smooth out the temporary performances caused by external factors. Both ETFs have achieved our three-year performance hurdle. As of July 2022, the OZR ETF had an average annual return of 9.34%. During the same time, the SYI ETF returned 6.65%.

There’s one more important thing to consider: the company that starts and runs the ETF. They are in charge of operating the ETF on the ASX. The issuer for both of these ETFs is SPDR, so we can’t say one is better than the other. However, using the FUM of the ETF can be a strong indicator of the ETF provider’s commitment to an ETF. SPDR ranks highly for our scores of ETF providers and issuers in Australia. We think SPDR is one of Australia’s top 10 ETF providers for advisers and institutions, and its ETFs on the ASX provide good exposure to particular financial markets for retail investors. had total funds invested (FUM) of $112.29 million and SYI had $291. million.

Next steps

To keep reading about these two ETFs, be sure to visit our free OZR ETF report or SYI ETF review.

In summary, the SYI ETF ranks better against our internal scoring methodology but not by much compared to OZR.

Please, keep in mind, there is much more to choosing a good ETF. That’s why you should now use these skills to find the best ETF you can. If you want the name of our team’s top ETF pick for 2024, keep reading…

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