This has been a pretty rough year for the global stock market. Several China-driven offhand events causing global market rout in mid-year, growth worries in global superpowers like the Euro zone, Japan and Canada, Greek debt deal drama, the vicious cycle of oil price declines, commodity market upheaval, and finally the Fed rate hike in almost a decade kept the global markets edgy throughout the year.

The impact of these events was harsh on the bourses. SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) has lost about 1% so far this year (as of December 22, 2015), Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (VGK - ETF report) has shed about 5.1% during the same timeframe, iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (EEM) has retreated as much as 16.9%, iShares MSCI All Country Asia ex Japan (AAXJ) has plummeted 11.5% and all-world ETF iShares MSCI ACWI (ACWI) has gone down over 4.7%.

The price performance of these region-based ETFs was enough to tag 2015 as a down year for global stocks, on an average.

In fact, as China devalued its currency yuan in a historic move in mid August, there was a bloodbath in global equities. The U.S. and Asian stocks experienced a three-year low monthly performance in August. Europe saw the most horrible month since the 2011 debt debacle. Commodities crumbled to multi-year lows on demand issues and hit hard all commodity-rich nations.

Still, the global market recouped some of its losses as the ECB extended its QE policy, BoJ made pro-growth changes in its accommodative policies and the Fed enacted a lift-off citing steady U.S. economic growth in the latter part of the year (read: Watch These Country ETFs Rebounding to Start Q4).  

These may give enough reasons to investors to look for international ETF survivors this year. For them, we have highlighted five ETFs that have gained at least 6% so far this year (as of December 22, 2015) defying the broad-based gloom.

WisdomTree Intl Hedged Quality Div Growth ETF (IHDG)

While the Fed had been preparing for policy tightening the entire year and finally hiked rates, other developed economies of the world and a few emerging economies are going the opposite direction. Due to growth issues, global superpowers like Europe, Japan and Australia are presently pursuing easy money policies (read: 11 Most Popular Currency Hedged ETFs).
 
As a result, stocks of these developed nations got an extra boost. Also, a currency-hedged approach was essential to set off the effect of a surging greenback. IHDG serves both aspects. Moreover, IHDG takes care of investors’ income too as the fund selects dividend-paying companies with growth features in the developed world ex U.S. and Canada. This Zacks ETF Rank #3 (Hold) ETF was up over 10% so far in 2015.
 
SPDR SP International Consumer Staples Sector ETF (IPS)

This international consumer staples ETF has double-digit exposure in U.K., Japan and Switzerland. Others nations like France, Netherlands, Belgium also get weight in the range of 6−8%. Nestle (13.58%) takes the top spot in the fund followed by Anheuser-Busch InBev (5.9%) and British American Tobacco (5.85%).

Ongoing easy policy measures and non-cyclical nature of the consumer staples sector helped the fund to endure global market shocks. IPS is up 8.8% so far this year (as of December 22, 2015).

iShares MSCI EAFE Small-Cap ETF (SCZ)

This ETF targets the small cap segment of the developed market space. Small caps are considered the measure of domestic economy. These are less ruffled by global economic concerns and most importantly the surging U.S. dollar. Since cheap money available in Japan, Germany and U.K. resulted in improving consumer sentiment in those regions, this small-cap ETF emerged as a winner. SCZ is up over 7.7% (read: 3 Small-Cap International ETFs to Watch).
 
SPDR S&P International Health Care Sector ETF (IRY)
 
Health care is another recession-proof sector and thus remained less ruffled in the down year of 2015. The fund puts double-digit weight in Switzerland (25.44%), Japan (17.15%) and U.K. (14.30%) and Germany (10.23%). The fund is heavy on pharmaceuticals sector (74.27%) followed by Health Care Equipment & Supplies (9.45%). IRY has advanced over 7% so far this year (as of December 22, 2015).
 
iShares MSCI EAFE Minimum Volatility (EFAV)
 
This fund targets the low volatility stocks of the developed equity markets, excluding the U.S. and Canada. In terms of country profile, Japan and United Kingdom take the top two spots at 28.5% and 24.2%, respectively, followed by Switzerland (10.43%). It is slightly tilted toward financials at 21.7%, closely followed by consumer staples (16.8%), health care (15.9%), industrials (11.1%) and consumer discretionary (10.6%).
 
The fund is up 6.5% so far this year (as of December 22, 2015). The fund has a Zacks ETF Rank #3 (Hold) with a low risk outlook (read: 5 Low Risk ETFs to Protect Returns Amid Volatility).