First Trust Advisors has announced that the Nasdaq-listed First Trust Taiwan AlphaDEX ETF (FTW US) will effectively cease to exist, with the vehicle being reorganised to pursue a new investment objective – tracking Indian equities – effective on or about 17 April 2018.
As of the transition date, the fund will start to track the NIFTY 50 Equal Weight Index, switching its investment focus from Taiwan-listed equities to Indian large-caps.
The fund currently has assets of under $2 million.
The new reference index is compiled, calculated and maintained by India Index Services & Products, a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE).
The index is an equally weighted version of the NIFTY 50 Index, the main index for Indian equities.
The NIFTY 50 comprises the 50 largest and most liquid Indian equity securities listed on NSE. All constituents of the NIFTY 50 index will be included in the new index, but will be equally weighted.
The index has exposure to 12 sectors of the economy; financial services represents the highest weighting at 35.3%, followed by energy at 15.0%. The annualised performance of the index over the past five years is 13.0% (as at 28 February 2018).
The expense ratio of the fund will remain unchanged at 80 bps.
To reflect the changes in the fund’s objective, its name and ticker will change to the First Trust India NIFTY 50 Equal Weight ETF (NFTY US).
In Europe, Deutsche Asset Management also has an ETF which provides exposure to the conventional NIFTY 50: the db x-trackers Nifty 50 UCITS ETF (XNIF LN). It was launched in September 2007, has a TER of 85 bps and assets under management of $195m.