SSgA SPDR launches two ETFs providing access to US equity market

Jul 15th, 2014 | By | Category: Equities

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has introduced two new US equity ETFs in Europe.

SSgA SPDR launches two ETFs providing access to US equity market

Eleanor Hope-Bell, head of SPDR UK at SSgA.

The pair of ETFs, which were listed on the Deutsche Börse earlier this month, offer exposure to US small-cap stocks and the broad US equity market.

The SPDR Russell 2000 US Small Cap UCITS ETF (ZPRR) tracks the Russell 2000 Index, one of the most widely followed benchmarks for US small-cap equity market. The fund enables investors to gain access to the strong growth potential of smaller US companies.

The SPDR Russell 3000 US Total Market UCITS ETF (ZPR3) meanwhile is the first product listed in Europe to be linked to the Russell 3000 Index, a broad market benchmark incorporating large-, mid-, and small-cap stocks. The fund enables investors to gain access to 98 percent of the investible US equity market via one single trade.

Eleanor Hope-Bell, head of SPDR UK at SSgA, commented: “On average, US small-cap stocks have historically had higher risk adjusted returns and outperformed large-caps in the long term, especially when recovering from recessionary periods. This makes them an especially attractive play for investors looking to access any recovery in the US market.”

She added: “US equities remain a core part of every investor’s portfolio and these two new ETFs will give investors access to the full breadth and depth of the US equity market that they may otherwise miss in their portfolio construction.”

Rolf Agather, managing director of global index research and innovation at Russell Investments, said: “Today, Russell’s US indices are widely embraced by institutional investors, with more than $5.2 trillion in assets benchmarked against them and 73 percent of the market share captured for all US institutional equity products reporting a benchmark. And volume for index-based investment vehicles on the Russell 2000 Index was greater than any competing index in 2013.”

Since the introduction of the Russell 2000 Index in 1984, the composition of the small-cap market has changed dramatically. For example, the size of the financial services sector within the index has more than doubled, from about 11 percent at the end of 1980 to nearly 24 percent at the end of 2013. For US small-cap investors, it is important to have a benchmark that accurately and fully represents the continued evolution of the US small-cap opportunity set.

There are now 58 SPDR ETFs available across Europe. These two new funds follow the launch of the SPDR Euro Stoxx Low Volatility UCITS ETF (ZPRL) on the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse earlier this year.

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