By Janet Flanders Johnston, portfolio manager at TrimTabs Asset Management.

The next generation of innovative equity ETFs may combine quantitative analysis with disciplined active management. Both purely active and purely passive products have negative attributes. By combining the best of both approaches, we believe a more efficient ETF that consistently generates alpha with the same amount of market risk can be created.

China Southern Asset Management has launched a new ETF on the Shenzen Stock Exchange. The ETF tracks the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI). The HSCEI is formed of 50 equity securities and offers broad exposure to large-cap Chinese companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

One sector has more than recouped its losses from February’s volatility. Technology has stormed ahead over the past month; 12 of the 15 top-performing London-listed ETFs over one-month track a tech-based index. But, as Chris Dhanraj, Head of the ETF Investment Strategy team at iShares, notes, “In investing, past is not prologue… the question is: Can the good times roll on?”

South African investment manager STANLIB Index Investments has launched a range of global passive ETFs on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). Each tracks a different international index and is denominated in South African rand. Wehmeyer Ferreira, COO of STANLIB Index Investments, said: “The funds can confidently be used as building blocks for an investor’s portfolio to expand their investment opportunities outside of South Africa in a low cost and transparent manner.”

Deutsche Asset Management has added a new ‘yield plus’ corporate bond ETF to its product line-up with the launch of the Xtrackers iBoxx USD Corporate Bond Yield Plus UCITS ETF (XYLD) on the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse. The fund tracks the Markit iBoxx USD Corporates 1-20 Yield Plus Index, providing exposure to higher yielding, mostly investment-grade, corporate bonds denominated in US dollars.

By Stephen Cohen, head of iShares EMEA at BlackRock.

Investors use ETF trading volumes in different ways: for asset allocators it is a useful, real-time window into where money is flowing through the trading day. For others, visible flows provide comfort in knowing that there is sufficient liquidity within the products they intend to invest in.

German investment bank Commerzbank has introduced two new passively managed multi-asset ETFs on Deutsche Börse’s Xetra and Frankfurt exchanges, targeting risk-averse and growth-oriented investors.

MSCI has launched 12 new China equity indices to help investors prepare for the next step of the China A-Share inclusion process. Theodore Niggli, head of APAC index products, MSCI, commented, “We are proud to announce the launch of this new suite of China indices. With the increased liberalization and internationalization of the China market, investors have expressed a clear need for more insight and tools to make better informed investment decisions.”

Ashburton Investments, the asset management arm of the FirstRand group, has launched the Ashburton World Government Bond ETF (ASHWGB SJ) on Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The ETF is the first to list on JSE to provide exposure to global government bonds.

BlackRock has introduced a distributing share class (EIMU LN) for its giant iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets IMI UCITS ETF on London Stock Exchange.