Investing · ETFs · UCITS

XUS, EUS, XND & XWR: My Take on Xtrackers' New UCITS ETFs on SGX

Xtrackers by DWS: 4 new UCITS ETFs listing on SGX.

Xtrackers is bringing 4 of its established European ETFs to the Singapore Exchange: XUS, EUS, XND and XWR. I've had more questions about this listing over the past week than almost any other ETF launch this year, so I figured it was worth sitting down and going through it properly.

In plain terms, Singapore investors will soon be able to buy S&P 500, S&P 500 Equal Weight, Nasdaq-100 and MSCI World exposure directly on SGX, in Singapore dollars, during Singapore market hours. All 4 funds use a UCITS structure, a European fund wrapper that's become the standard for globally-accessible, tax-efficient index funds, and one you'll see referenced throughout this article.

I want to be upfront about something before we go further: these 4 tickers are not interchangeable, and I don't want you subscribing to one just because it's the one everyone in your group chat is talking about. XUS follows the conventional market-cap-weighted S&P 500, EUS follows an equal-weight version, XND tracks the more concentrated Nasdaq-100, and XWR covers developed markets through the MSCI World Index. If those terms don't mean much to you yet, don't worry, I'll explain each one as we go.

So in this article, let's walk through the structure, the fees, how the 4 differ from each other, the risks, and how they stack up against alternatives I already use myself, including LSE listings I buy through IBKR.

The 4 New SGX-Listed Xtrackers ETFs

Here's how the 4 line up side by side, before we go through each one individually. Quick definition before we start: TER (Total Expense Ratio) is just the fund's yearly running cost. It's charged automatically inside the fund, so you never see a separate bill, but it quietly eats into your returns every year.

The TER figures above are DWS's current stated product fees as at 21 Sep 2026. The Singapore prospectus also discloses higher legal maximum all-in fee caps for some share classes, and its historical expense-ratio table is based on audited accounts for the year ended 31 Dec 2025. Don't confuse those older figures with the current TER, always check the latest DWS product page and local documents before you buy.

All 4 are Irish-domiciled UCITS ETFs. They're physically replicated (the fund actually holds the underlying shares, rather than using a swap), accumulating (dividends get reinvested automatically instead of paid out as cash), and unhedged (no currency hedging overlay). They already exist in Europe, this isn't 4 brand new portfolios starting from zero. What's new is the SGX trading line.

The SGX listings start trading on 13 Oct 2026, in SGD. But trading in SGD only removes the manual FX step, it doesn't remove the underlying foreign-currency exposure: the value of the underlying companies and currencies still moves your returns in Singapore-dollar terms. I've seen a few comments assume SGD trading means "no currency risk", that's not quite right.

MAS Registration and Official Documents

Before I recommend anything with my own name attached to it, I like to check the paperwork myself. Here's what I found on MAS's OPERA portal (Offers and Prospectuses Electronic Repository and Access), the government's official prospectus database.

The MAS OPERA prospectus record lists Xtrackers (IE) plc as a registered prospectus.

Screenshot from MAS OPERA, eservices.mas.gov.sg.

MAS lists all 4 associated schemes as recognised collective investment schemes.

MAS also lists the actual offer documents lodged for each fund, the Product Highlights Sheets and prospectus you should read before investing, not just the registration record.

These are the primary local documents I'd read for the investment objective, structure, fees, trading arrangements and risks, all downloadable directly from the MAS OPERA page.

Why the SGX Listings Matter

I've been buying UCITS ETFs on the London Stock Exchange for years through IBKR, so none of these underlying funds are new to me, or to plenty of Singapore investors who've already gone the LSE route. What's changing here is the friction, not the access.

You can potentially:

1. Deposit SGD.
2. Buy the ETF on SGX during Singapore market hours.
3. Hold an Irish-domiciled, accumulating UCITS fund without opening up LSE access.

For a beginner, or an SRS (Supplementary Retirement Scheme) investor who wants to stay within the local market, that convenience matters. Less friction can make it easier to start, and easier to stay consistent, and consistency is most of what makes DCA (dollar-cost averaging, investing a fixed amount on a regular schedule) work in the first place.

Dividend withholding tax and US estate tax

This is where the Irish domicile actually earns its keep, and it's worth being specific rather than just saying "more tax-efficient":

• Dividend withholding tax. A US-domiciled ETF withholds 30% on US-source dividends paid to a Singapore investor, with no treaty relief. An Irish-domiciled UCITS ETF holding the same US shares, like XUS, EUS, XND and XWR, generally only suffers 15% withholding at fund level under the US-Ireland tax treaty, and there's no further Irish withholding on top for a non-Irish resident.
• US estate tax. A US-domiciled ETF is a US-situs asset. If you hold it directly and pass away, your estate can face US estate tax on the value above a US$60,000 exemption for non-resident aliens, at rates up to 40%. An Irish-domiciled UCITS ETF, even one holding the same underlying US shares, isn't a US-situs asset, so it sits outside that regime entirely.

Neither point is a reason to chase this specific SGX listing on its own. But it's the real structural reason many Singapore investors default to Irish-domiciled, accumulating UCITS ETFs over buying US ETFs directly, and it applies to XUS, EUS, XND and XWR the same way it applies to any other Irish-domiciled fund.

All 4 funds are also stated to be SRS-eligible. That opens up a separate question worth its own space: which of these makes the most sense to actually hold inside SRS, versus a cash brokerage account. I'm planning a dedicated follow-up on that once trading data comes in after the 13 Oct launch, so watch this space.

But UCITS is a structure, not a strategy. We still have to decide whether we actually want S&P 500, equal-weight S&P 500, Nasdaq-100 or MSCI World exposure. That's the real decision, and it's the one this article is here to help with.

The Moomoo Pre-Listing Subscription

Moomoo Singapore is the exclusive distributor during the pre-listing subscription period. Once the funds begin normal SGX trading on 13 Oct, you'll be able to buy them through other brokers that support the counters too.

Xtrackers x Moomoo pre-listing subscription campaign.

Where to find it in the app

If you already have the moomoo app installed, here's how we get to the subscription page:

1. Open the moomoo app.
2. Tap Markets at the bottom.
3. Switch to the SG tab.
4. Tap IPOs.

All 4 funds should show up under the "Available" tab, each with its own Subscribe button, minimum amount and countdown to the subscription deadline.

moomoo app: Markets → SG → IPOs.

The minimum subscription is S$1,000. Based on the campaign terms I was given, subscriptions are filled in full without balloting, and you can amend or cancel before the closing time.

Affiliate link, referral code HMSG999. Not sponsored, full disclosure further down.

Is subscribing early positive EV?

Quick definition first: EV, or Expected Value, just means whether an action leaves you better off on average. "Positive EV" doesn't guarantee a win every single time, it just means the odds favour you if you did the same thing repeatedly.

In this case: slightly positive, assuming you already know you want the ETF.

The subscription has 2 execution benefits:

• 0% subscription fee
• Pricing near NAV (Net Asset Value, the fund's actual per-unit worth), without paying the secondary-market bid-ask spread (the gap between the buy and sell price you'd otherwise pay when trading on the open market)

This isn't an IPO. There's no scarce allotment and no reason to expect a listing-day pop. Units can be created and redeemed, and a market maker helps keep the trading price close to NAV.

I think the cost saving here is likely to be small. These are additional listings of already-established European funds, so market makers can reference prices on the other exchanges. Saving a modest commission or a few basis points (1 basis point = 0.01%) of spread is nice, but I wouldn't let it decide which index I'm going to own for the next 10 or 20 years.

If you've already decided you want one of these funds, the subscription window is a reasonable way to get in. If the only reason you're subscribing is that the offer is time-limited, that's the wrong reason. Account opening and the current referral code are further down, in How to Subscribe Through Moomoo.

XUS: Xtrackers S&P 500 UCITS ETF

XUS is the one I'd call the straightforward one. It tracks the S&P 500, uses physical replication (it actually buys the underlying shares, rather than using a swap), and automatically reinvests dividends. Its current TER is 0.03%.

This is the easiest of the 4 funds to understand: roughly 500 large US companies, weighted by free-float market capitalisation, the standard way most people picture "the stock market."

XUS isn't a brand new fund built just for this SGX listing. The same fund, same ISIN, has already been trading in Europe for years under the ticker XDPU on the London Stock Exchange, and also on Xetra, Borsa Italiana and a few other European exchanges. What's happening here is that the identical fund is simply getting an SGX-friendly ticker and an SGD trading line.

XUS versus XDPU, SPYL, CSPX and S27

XDPU and XUS are the same fund under 2 different tickers, so there's no fee difference to weigh there, only which exchange and trading currency suits you better.

Against SPYL, a different fund from a different provider, the fee is basically a tie. XUS's real advantage over SPYL is operational: SGD trading without a manual FX conversion, Singapore market hours, SGX access rather than LSE access, and SRS eligibility.

SPYL's advantage is that its LSE trading line is already well established. Once XUS starts trading, I'd actually compare brokerage, exchange fees, FX cost and the live bid-ask spread on both exchanges, not just the TER on paper.

At 0.03%, the annual TER works out to S$3 for every S$10,000 invested. Switching funds or brokers at a 0.20% trading friction would cost S$20, more than 6 years' worth of that TER. If you already hold a similar fund, factor in the cost of selling and repurchasing before you switch, especially when the underlying exposure barely changes.

EUS: Xtrackers S&P 500 Equal Weight UCITS ETF

EUS tracks the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index. Instead of letting the largest companies dominate the portfolio, it resets every constituent to roughly the same weight at each quarterly rebalance.

Here's a simple way to picture it: a normal S&P 500 fund gives more of your money to whichever companies have grown the biggest. An equal-weight fund gives roughly the same amount to all 500, and resets back to that every 3 months. That sounds like a small tweak, but it's actually a real strategy change with its own return pattern.

This isn't a new fund built for SGX either. It already trades in Europe as XDEW, on the London Stock Exchange, Xetra, Borsa Italiana and a few other exchanges, same fund, same 0.15% TER.

EUS and XDEW versus EWSP

If you're shopping specifically for equal-weight S&P 500 exposure, the main alternative most Singapore investors compare against is EWSP, iShares' (BlackRock's ETF brand) version of the same strategy, listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The fee is identical across all 3, so choosing between them comes down to fund size, tracking accuracy and which platform gives you easier access, not TER.

The benefit

EUS reduces your dependence on a handful of mega-cap stocks. When the average S&P 500 company does better than the largest names, equal weight can outperform the standard index.

Its quarterly rebalancing also systematically sells relative winners and adds to relative losers, a mild contrarian, size tilt compared with the market-cap-weighted index.

The cost

At 0.15% TER, on S$100,000 that's S$150 a year in fund fees, compared with roughly S$30 a year for a standard market-cap-weighted S&P 500 tracker. That's about S$120 more a year, a real gap, but still small in absolute terms.

Equal weighting doesn't automatically make a portfolio safer. It reduces single-stock concentration, but adds more exposure to smaller constituents and can create higher turnover. It will lag badly if mega-cap winners keep leading the market, which is roughly the environment we've been in for a while now.

I want to be clear on this one: EUS is a rules-based factor tilt with its own return pattern, not a simple, lower-concentration upgrade to a standard S&P 500 fund. I'd only reach for it if I specifically wanted equal-weight exposure and lower dependence on the largest names, not as an automatic swap for my core US holding.

XND: Xtrackers Nasdaq 100 UCITS ETF

XND tracks the Nasdaq-100 Index, 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on Nasdaq. Its TER is 0.20%.

It holds a lot of the same mega-cap names already in the S&P 500, just at much bigger weights. It also excludes financials entirely, because of how the index is constructed.

This one already trades in Europe too, under the ticker XNAQ on the London Stock Exchange (and XNAS on Xetra and a few other European exchanges). Same fund, same 0.20% TER, just a different ticker and market.

What the Nasdaq-100 Actually Is

The Nasdaq-100 gets called a "technology index" a lot. It does skew heavily towards tech, but what actually defines the universe is the exchange listing and the exclusion of financials. A company being listed on Nasdaq, on its own, doesn't make it a good investment, and I don't think it should be treated as one.

XND versus XNAQ, CNDX and EQQQ

The 2 established alternatives most Singapore investors already compare against are CNDX (iShares NASDAQ 100 UCITS ETF) and EQQQ (Invesco EQQQ NASDAQ-100 UCITS ETF), both charging around 0.30% TER.

XND's 0.20% TER undercuts both CNDX and EQQQ, and it's simply the same fund as XNAQ under a different ticker, so there's no fee difference to weigh there either. The SGX listing also removes the manual FX step for a Singapore investor, which I like.

That's a real cost advantage. But the index decision is still much bigger than a 0.10 percentage-point fee saving. If the Nasdaq-100 underperforms the broader market by 10%, saving 0.10% in TER won't make up for that.

If you already own the S&P 500 or a global market ETF, adding XND doesn't add much real diversification. It mostly increases your exposure to companies you already own, especially the largest growth names. I'd treat it as a satellite tilt, not a core holding.

XWR: Xtrackers MSCI World UCITS ETF

XWR tracks the MSCI World Index and charges a 0.12% TER. It covers large- and mid-cap companies across 23 developed markets.

But here's the important part: MSCI World does not include emerging markets.

That means no China, India, Taiwan, or any other emerging-market allocation unless you add a separate ETF for it.

This fund isn't new either. It already trades in Europe as XDWD, on the London Stock Exchange, Xetra and a few other exchanges, same fund, same 0.12% TER, just without the SGX ticker and SGD line.

XWR versus VWRA and VALL

Don't mistake XWR for a cheaper VWRA. The 2 funds simply track different universes, full stop.

The TER gap between XWR and VWRA is only 0.02 percentage points, or S$20 a year per S$100,000. That's too small a saving to justify giving up emerging markets if what you actually want is all-world exposure. I wouldn't make that trade for 2 basis points (1 basis point = 0.01%).

VALL is both broader and cheaper at the fund-fee level, but it only trades on LSE. XWR's real advantage is local SGD access and SRS eligibility, not superior global coverage.

I actually made a video going deeper into VALL versus VWRA specifically, since that comparison comes up a lot outside of this article too. Embedded below if you want the fuller breakdown:

VALL versus VWRA, my video breakdown.

XWR versus SWRD and the Amundi Index MSCI World Fund

XWR and SWRD are both ETFs. The Amundi Index MSCI World Fund is a different kind of product, it's a unit trust (a traditional mutual fund, not an ETF), Luxembourg-domiciled, and it's the one commonly available in SGD through fund platforms like Endowus and POEMS, which is how a lot of Singapore investors already access MSCI World for SRS or cash accounts.

The Amundi fund is actually slightly cheaper on TER, but it isn't a straight swap for XWR. A unit trust is priced once a day rather than traded live on an exchange, and it's bought through a fund platform, not a broker. For someone already using Endowus for SRS, it's a genuine alternative worth knowing about alongside XWR, which is exactly the kind of comparison I'll dig into in the SRS follow-up.

XWR and SRS investing

XWR widens the pool of low-cost, accumulating global-equity ETFs available directly on SGX, and it's stated to be SRS-eligible. Its underlying index covers developed markets only.

You can pair it with an emerging-markets ETF if you want to control that allocation yourself. But once you're running 2 funds, rebalancing between them and paying 2 sets of trading costs, I'd compare the whole portfolio against a single all-world ETF rather than just staring at XWR's TER in isolation.

Liquidity, Spread and the Real Total Cost

All 4 underlying funds are established in Europe, but the SGX trading lines themselves are brand new.

The Singapore prospectus states that a designated market maker will be appointed, while also warning there's no assurance about the price at which a market will be made, or that a liquid secondary market will always exist. That's fairly standard risk disclosure, but I'd still take it seriously. A fund can have huge global AUM while its local SGX line still has thin screen volume and a wide spread, at least in the early days.

When normal trading begins, the costs worth comparing are:

1. Fund TER
2. Brokerage commission and platform fee
3. SGX or LSE exchange-related charges
4. FX conversion cost
5. Bid-ask spread at the actual time and order size
6. Tracking difference over time

The order type matters here too. A limit order sets the maximum price you're willing to pay, or the minimum you'll accept to sell. A market order just takes whatever's quoted. For these overseas-equity ETFs, spreads can vary depending on the underlying market's hours, though the designated market maker should be able to quote during SGX hours using futures and other reference instruments.

What Each ETF Actually Provides

If you just want a quick lookup for which fund matches what you're searching for, here it is.

There's a lot of overlap across these 4. XUS, EUS and XND all hold plenty of the same large US names, and XWR's US allocation includes many of those same names too. Owning all 4 doesn't automatically give you 4 distinct sources of diversification. In fact, it might just mean you're overweight the same handful of mega-caps, spread across 4 different wrappers.

The Real Lesson

I think this launch is a good development for Singapore investors, it brings established Irish-domiciled UCITS funds onto SGX, in SGD. But I keep coming back to the same point: the convenience layer and the investment layer are 2 separate decisions.

The pre-listing subscription removes the subscription fee and the secondary-market spread for that 1 transaction. I'd weigh that saving separately from whether the underlying index actually suits your portfolio for the next decade or 2.

Profit is uncertain. Cost is certain. And the biggest cost here usually has nothing to do with the TER. Choosing the wrong index, duplicating exposure you already have, or switching funds you didn't need to switch, that's cost me more over the years than any expense ratio ever has.

How to Subscribe Through Moomoo

During the pre-listing period, Moomoo is the exclusive subscription channel for all 4 ETFs.

If you've already decided one of these fits your portfolio, you can open a Moomoo Singapore account through my link, or key in referral code HMSG999 when you sign up.

The current welcome campaign advertises rewards worth up to S$2,100 for eligible new customers, subject to account-opening, funding, trading and asset-maintenance requirements. "Up to" rewards almost always need very large deposits to unlock, so work out the tier you can realistically hit rather than anchoring on the headline number.

After 13 Oct 2026, you'll be able to buy and sell the ETFs normally on SGX through participating brokers. Moomoo's exclusivity only applies to the subscription period, not to permanent secondary-market trading.

Buying LSE-Listed Alternatives Through IBKR

The new SGX counters can be measured against established Irish-domiciled UCITS ETFs already trading on the London Stock Exchange, including SPYL, CSPX, SWRD, CNDX, EQQQ, VWRA and VALL. I've personally held some of these on the LSE side for years.

LSE listings generally need a broker with London market access, and can involve currency conversion, overseas exchange fees and different trading hours. What you get in exchange is a longer trading history, larger established trading lines, and a wider choice of indices and fund providers.

The IBKR link is an affiliate or referral link. Eligibility, rewards, commissions and other charges are subject to Interactive Brokers' latest terms. The presence of an affiliate link does not change the ETF comparisons in this article.

This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. It reflects my personal views as at 22 Sep 2026. Fund fees, campaign terms, holdings and market conditions can change. Investors should read the relevant prospectus and Product Highlights Sheet before investing. ETF prices and income may rise or fall, and past performance does not indicate future returns. The listing of an ETF on SGX does not guarantee an active or liquid secondary market. Consider your own financial situation, investment objectives and risk tolerance before investing. This article is not sponsored. It contains affiliate links to Moomoo Singapore and Interactive Brokers, I may receive a commission if you sign up through these links, at no additional cost to you.