Toronto-based Horizons ETFs has unveiled two new exchange-traded funds that will provide investors with exposure to the two largest sectors of the Canadian stock market – financials and energy. With annual management fees of just 0.35%, the two funds become the lowest-cost products in their peer group, almost 40% less expensive than the next lowest-cost ETF tracking the same index.

UBS Global Asset Management has slashed the fees charged on its adviser class of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in a bid to attract a greater slice of European ETF inflows. The new lower fees, which pertain to the asset manager’s ‘A’ share class ETFs, have been applied with immediate effect, resulting in instant cost savings and tighter index tracking for investors in these ETFs. Andrew Walsh, Head of ETF Sales UK at UBS, said the move demonstrated the firm’s “ambitions in the ETF business”.

BSE, formerly the Bombay Stock Exchange, and S&P Dow Jones Indices have cemented their Mumbai-based joint venture with the launch of Asia Index. The newly incorporated company, which builds on the firms’ strategic partnership announced in February, has been established to calculate, disseminate and license the S&P BSE suite of indices. The company becomes the home to a range of indices including the well known S&P BSE SENSEX and S&P BSE 500 blue-chip benchmarks, as well as a number of thematic, sector and strategy-based products.

Gold mining stocks around the world have reacted to the unveiling of the revamped NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index, underlying index to the giant Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX). With some $6.4 billion in assets under management, GDX is comfortably the world’s largest gold miner-focused exchange-traded fund (ETF) – the composition of its underlying index therefore matters to gold mining companies.

Eaton Vance has filed an amended application with the US Securities & Exchange Commission seeking exemptive relief to permit the offering of exchange-traded managed funds (ETMFs). ETMFs are a proposed new type of open-end fund designed to bring the cost and tax efficiencies and shareholder protections of the exchange-traded fund (ETF) structure to active investment strategies, while maintaining the confidentiality of current portfolio trading information.

Lyxor has listed a further 17 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), offering a mix of developed and emerging markets equity exposures. Commenting on the launch, Arnaud Llinas, Global Head of ETFs and Indexing at Lyxor, said: “These ETFs have been constructed to meet the requirements our clients have come to expect in line with our Quality Charter, and have been constructed specifically to meet the standards of high liquidity and low tracking error that we seek to maintain across our entire ETF range.”

By David Stevenson – Over the last decade commodity trackers have literally come from nowhere to emerge as the next big thing in the world of alternative assets. But that huge success has also thrust the humble commodity index into the spotlight – many investors still struggle to understand why the main index families are so radically different or how futures-based structures can cope with the long-term effect of the roll yield. That debate has prompted many investors to demand better indices, and a small but hardy bunch of ETP pioneers has reacted by dabbling around with what are in effect next-generation indices.

Some of the largest and most popular exchange-traded funds (ETFs) linked to the semiconductor industry are set for a makeover following a re-ranking of the index they track. Among the funds affected are the iShares PHLX Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3x Shares ETF (SOXL) and the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3x Shares ETF (SOXS).

Earlier this week Christopher Woolard, Director of Policy, Risk and Research at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), made a speech at the Regulatory Policy Institute’s Annual Competition and Regulation Conference. In it he commented on the regulator’s new competition mandate, enshrined in the Financial Services Act 2012, a key strand of which is to ‘[promote] effective competition in the interests of consumers in the markets for regulated financial services’.

Ossiam, a provider of smart beta exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and affiliate of Natixis Global Asset Management, has listed the world’s first risk-weighted commodity ETF, the Ossiam Risk Weighted Enhanced Commodity ex. Grains TR UCITS ETF (CRWU). The fund is fully UCITS compliant and provides investors with systematic long-only exposure to a diversified basket of 20 commodities futures contracts (excluding grains) with reduced volatility. It has been listed on the London Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana, NYSE Euronext Paris and Xetra.