Lyxor has reduced the total expense ratio of the Lyxor Nasdaq-100 UCITS ETF from 0.30% to 0.22%, making it the cheapest UCITS ETF in Europe for this exposure.
Lyxor has lowered the fee on its Nasdaq 100 ETF.
The fund is synthetically replicated and maintains listings on Euronext Paris (UST FP), Borsa Italiana (UST IM), London Stock Exchange (NASD LN / NASL LN), and Xetra (LYMS GY).
A statement from Lyxor said the fee reduction had been made possible by the economies of scale achieved from the merger between Lyxor and ComStage, Commerzbank’s ETF business.
Lyxor acquired ComStage when it bought Commerzbank’s Equity Markets & Commodities division in 2018, with integration of the two businesses completed in late 2019.
Various ComStage funds were closed, rebranded, or absorbed into existing Lyxor funds. The ComStage Nasdaq 100 UCITS ETF was in this latter category, joining forces with the Lyxor Nasdaq-100 UCITS ETF. Combined, the fund now commands assets under management of $1.5 billion.
ETFs tracking the Nasdaq-100 Index have been among the best performing ETFs this year, clocking up gains of almost 30% year to date, as measured in US dollars. The index has been a net winner during the coronavirus pandemic owing to its significant allocation to technology companies and, to a lesser degree, biotechnology firms that have benefited from social-distancing restrictions and increased spending on healthcare respectively.
Often described as ‘tech-heavy’, the index tracks the performance of 100 of the largest US and international non-financial companies by market capitalization listed on the Nasdaq stock market, subject to various diversification requirements.
The index reflects companies across major industry groups including computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade, and biotechnology. It does not contain securities of any traditional financial companies or investment companies. Technology stocks account for more than 47% of the index.
Major constituents include tech titans such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook, Tesla, Nvidia, Adobe, PayPal, and Netflix.
Chanchal Samadder, Head of Product Strategy at Lyxor ETF, commented: “Through this ETF investors can invest in some of the most innovative companies in the world in a simple, transparent and cost-effective way “.
While the Lyxor fund becomes the cheapest in Europe (QQQ, the Nasdaq-listed ETF issued by Invesco in the US charges just 0.20%), it is some way off being the largest. That accolade belongs to the iShares NASDAQ 100 UCITS ETF (CNDX LN) which is home to more than $5.9bn in assets.
Of course, even CNDX looks like a minnow compared to Invesco QQQ ETF (QQQ US) which houses a whopping $132bn.