By Stephen Kam, senior product specialist, Asian equities at HSBC Global Asset Management.

With A share investors jittery about the outlook for equity markets on the back of the government’s efforts to tighten liquidity, some observers have pointed to MSCI’s decision on potential A-share inclusion into their global indices as a possible catalyst for fresh inflows.  An announcement is expected on 20 June, but the market is still split on whether the final verdict will be yes or no.

ETF Securities has cross-listed three ETPs on Euronext Amsterdam. Dutch investors can now access the firm’s robotics & automation, cyber security and physically backed Swiss vaulted gold ETPs on their local exchange. Peter Lidblom, head of Netherlands and Nordics, ETF Securities commented: “We are delighted to make these innovative products available to Dutch investors. We believe that exposure to the robotics and cyber security megatrends may deliver outperformance because both sectors are part of a major revolution.”

Strategy-based exchange-traded fund provider Pacer ETFs has reached more than $1 billion in assets under management just two years after the launch of the firm’s first ETFs. Sean O’Hara, President of Pacer ETF Distributors, commented: “It’s an exciting time to be at Pacer. We’ve achieved a major milestone and we’ve only just scraped the surface of our potential.” Pacer offers the Trendpilot and Cash Cows series of ETFs.

BNY Mellon’s Pershing, a provider of financial business solutions, has launched Fundvest ETF, a no-transaction-fee ETF platform with no purchase minimums or holding period. The solution provides Pershing’s clients with flexibility to deliver a broad range of ETFs to investors while reducing explicit costs.

Actively-managed exchange-traded fund provider AdvisorShares has announced that the AdvisorShares Board of Trustees has approved the closing and liquidation of the AdvisorShares QAM Equity Hedge ETF (QEH) and the AdvisorShares Market Adaptive Unconstrained Income ETF (MAUI).

Over a third (38%) of asset managers predict that the use of strategic beta strategies is the most likely feature of next-generation US target-date products, according to a survey by global research and consulting firm Cerulli Associates.

VanEck has rolled out British pound-denominated share classes for its range of four VanEck Vectors UCITS ETFs. Now tradable on the London Stock Exchange, the GBP-denominated ETFs build upon the US-dollar denominated UCITS ETFs already registered on the LSE, providing greater flexibility in currency exposure for local and international investors.

HSBC has become the 16th ETP issuer to list products on Borsa Italiana’s ETFplus platform after it cross-listed five funds on the Italian exchange.  The ETFs, which all offer broad market equity exposures, are also listed on London Stock Exchange, NYSE Euronext, Deutsche Börse and SIX.

The exchange-traded funds industry may be set for a further boost in investor demand following the introduction of the US Department of Labor’s ‘fiduciary rule’ aimed at financial advisors. The rule stipulates that US-based retirement advisors must act in their clients’ best interests when recommending investment products, prioritising investment suitability and affordability over the advisor’s ability to earn fees or commissions.

First Trust has announced that the Trustees of the First Trust CBOE S&P 500 VIX Tail Hedge Fund (NYSE Arca: VIXH) have approved changes to the fund’s name, ticker code, underlying index, exchange and investment objective. The changes are due to come into effect on or around 18 August 2017.