The assets under management of First Trust Global Portfolios’ (FTGP) European-listed ETF suite has grown to over $600m since the firm debuted its first ETF in the European market in 2011. Derek Fulton, CEO at FTGP said, “We have been hugely encouraged by the increasing interest in our trusted innovative investment solutions and believe this significant growth underlines the value of our proven investment strategies.”

VanEck has unveiled the VanEck Vectors MSCI International Sustainable Equity ETF on the Australian Securities Exchange, providing investors with global exposure to the stocks of companies with high socially responsible investment characteristics. Arian Neiron, VanEck’s managing director and head of Asia Pacific, commented, “We are excited to launch an all-encompassing and true-to-label sustainable international equity fund, incorporating both values-based and impact investing on the ASX.”

By Martin Small, Head of US iShares at BlackRock

As the recent market volatility made clear, there’s a big difference between plain vanilla ETFs and leveraged products making big bets with big risks.

By Jack Jiang, senior ETF specialist at ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management (International).

The Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC) was held in Beijing on 18-20 December 2017 and, as the first CEWC after the Nineteenth Party Congress, it set the tone for China’s central government’s economic policies in 2018. They are crucial to the long-term development of the world’s second-largest economy.

Trading activity in ETFs spiked on the back of Tuesday’s market volatility, according to a statement from BlackRock, with $8.8bn traded across its iShares EMEA-listed range over the course of the day – equivalent to 340% of average daily volume. The figures highlight a growing trend of investors turning to ETFs as the investment vehicle of choice to navigate markets.

US-listed ETFs are off to a record-breaking year as investors piled $78 billion worth of net inflows into these products during January — the highest monthly inflow ever — according to data from State Street Global Advisors (SSGA). Matthew Bartolini, head of SPDR Americas research at SSGA, said the net inflows shattered the previous high of $59bn set in November 2016.

UBS has introduced income-accumulating share classes for five of its fixed income ETFs on SIX Swiss Exchange. The funds, which track Bloomberg Barclays indices and offer a variety of exposures, including to US Treasuries, US corporates, and EM sovereigns, complement the existing income-distributing shares.

BNP Paribas has cross-listed the BNP Paribas Easy FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Eurozone Capped ETF (EEEG GR) on Deutsche Börse’s Xetra and Börse Frankfurt markets. The ETF tracks the performance of listed real estate companies and REITs in the Eurozone.

ETF Securities’ three recently launched ‘disruptive technology’ ETFs have been cross-listed onto Deutsche Börse’s Xetra platform. The three thematic equity ETFs provide investors with exposure to the performance of niche segments of the e-commerce, pharma and energy-storage-technology sectors.

Lyxor has cross-listed the Lyxor MSCI ACWI Gold UCITS ETF on SIX Swiss Exchange and Euronext Amsterdam. The fund, which was first listed on Euronext Paris in 2012, provides equity exposure to firms globally whose revenues are closely related to gold production.