Thomson Reuters, in partnership with boutique index provider S-Network Global Indexes, has announced changes to the methodology underlying its corporate responsibility ratings and index suite. The range also been rebranded the Thomson Reuters/S-Network ESG Best Practices Ratings & Indices to better reflect the change.

By Woon Khien Chia, Senior Portfolio Manager, Nikko Asset Management.

China’s deleveraging campaign has been underway for more than three years, starting with the real sector and progressing to the financial sector. While excesses in key industrial sectors have been reduced and the overheated bond and currency markets have also corrected sharply, the country’s aggregate debt ratios are still not declining.

By Hitendra Varsani, executive director of factor strategies, MSCI.

We have seen substantial rotation in factor index performance in the past 12 months. Value, the best-performing equity factor index in the second half of 2016, was the worst performer in the first six months of 2017. On the other hand, quality, which had lagged last year, has performed well in 2017. But this has left quality stocks at peak valuations for the past decade, confronting investors with a question: Is it time to reduce exposure to this factor?

ETFs tracking Eastern Europe equities have delivered strong returns over the past year following robust economic growth in the countries within this bloc. The iShares MSCI Eastern Europe Capped UCITS ETF (LON: IDEE) is up 20.9% over the past year.

Net new assets (NNA) added to the European ETF industry during June 2017 totalled €8.5 billion with fixed income ETF net inflows (+€4.5bn) outstripping those for equity ETFs (+€4.0bn) for the first time since September 2016. These were the findings according to European ETF provider Lyxor’s monthly flows analysis.

Charles Schwab has filed a regulatory request with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list its first ETF since 2013. The fund, named the Schwab 1000 Index ETF, will track an in-house index composed of the largest 1,000 US stocks by market cap putting the fund in direct competition with ETFs that track the Russell 1000 Index.

Hong Kong-based Samsung Asset Management has announced it is closing four of its leveraged and inverse ETPs which provide exposure to equities listed in South Korea or Japan. The last trading day for the ETPs will be 31 July 2017 and their proposed termination date will be on or around 29 September 2017.

Potential changes to the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) being proposed by MSCI and S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) could cause a shake-up of the constituents of ETFs tracking the telecom, technology and consumer discretionary sectors. The two indexing firms are currently running a consultation to potentially change the current telecommunications services sector to a new communications services sector.

Fourteen new ETFs were listed on London Stock Exchange in June 2017, bringing the total number of ETFs or ETPs listed on the exchange to 912 and 457 respectively. ETF providers listing on the London market during June included Amundi, Deutsche Asset Management, Lyxor, iShares and UBS.

According to BlackRock’s second quarter earnings report, the firm’s ETF arm iShares has crossed $1.5 trillion in assets under management after adding a record $74 billion of net inflows during the three months. According to the report, “Growth was balanced among iShares core funds, precision exposures and financial instruments, demonstrating that ETFs are no longer used only as passive allocations, but increasingly by active investors to generate alpha in their portfolios.”