SIX Swiss Exchange has announced changes to the rules governing the SMI Index, Switzerland’s blue-chip equity index. As of 18 September, the index, which measures the performance of the 20 largest and most liquid stocks on the Zurich stock exchange, will commence a process which will result in the weights of constituents being capped at 18%.
As parliamentary elections loom in Spain and polls suggest a lack of a clear majority, Spanish ETF returns have continued to dive into negative territory. Spain has been suffering a political deadlock for months following an inconclusive election in December, which stripped Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s centre-right People’s Party of an absolute majority and made his goals of austerity and reform ever harder to implement. The election in December also raised worries of prolonged political and economic uncertainty, as seen in neighbouring countries like Greece and Portugal. The Amundi MSCI Spain UCITS ETF (CS1) is now down 14.5% year-to-date and has dropped over 23% in the past year alone.
Commerzbank, the German bank behind the ComStage range of exchange-traded funds, has announced the launch of a family of investable indices based on fund flow data from EPFR, a leading fund flow and asset allocation provider. Covering multiple asset classes including equities, commodities, fixed income and multi-asset, the indices track systematic strategies that utilise the predictive power of fund flow data to make asset allocation decisions. Their systematic nature means they can also be used as the basis for index-linked products such as exchange-traded funds.
Commerzbank’s exchange-traded fund division Comstage has introduced five new ETFs to the Xetra and Borse Frankfurt exchanges. Four of the new funds track long or short positions for a range of maturities in the US Treasury market while the fifth tracks a basket of commodities from the energy as well as the industrial and precious metal sectors.
The number of exchange-traded fund listings on SIX Swiss Exchange has surpassed 1000. The Zurich-based exchange has reached the milestone 15 years after the first ETF was listed on the exchange. “We are proud of reaching this milestone, and we would like to thank our issuers for the trust they show in us with each product launched,” commented Danielle Mair, ETFs & ETPs Sales Manager for SIX Swiss Exchange. Since SIX Swiss unveiled its dedicated ETF segment in 2000 the number of products has grown steadily. Last year proved to be particularly strong, with 162 new products listed, including 50 in the final quarter alone.
Global X Funds, a New York-based provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), has announced the launch of the Global X FTSE Portugal 20 ETF (PGAL), the first US-listed ETF to focus exclusively on Portugal. The fund has been listed on the NYSE Arca and is linked to the FTSE Portugal 20 Index, an index representing the performance of 20 of the largest Portuguese companies traded on the NYSE Euronext Lisbon, ranked by market capitalization.
Global X Funds, a New York-based provider of exchange-traded funds, has unveiled the Global X Next Emerging & Frontier ETF (EMFM), a new ETF providing exposure to an exciting crop of less developed emerging and frontier market countries. Bruno del Ama, chief executive officer of Global X Funds, said: “Investing in emerging markets continues to be an important strategy for portfolio diversification and growth, but investors must now look beyond more mature [emerging market] economies to regions with accelerating growth rates and expanding populations.”
Commerzbank’s exchange-traded funds brand ComStage has launched two innovative new ETFs. The funds, which have been listed on the Deutsche Börse, offer exposure to large-cap China A-shares and to developed market stocks with emerging market exposure. The ComStage FTSE China A50 UCITS ETF (C024) becomes the first ETF in Europe to track the FTSE China A 50 Index while the ComStage ETF MSCI World with EM Exposure Net UCITS ETF (E130) becomes the first ETF globally to track the sophisticated MSCI World with EM Exposure Index.
MSCI has unveiled the MSCI EM Beyond BRIC Index. The index is composed of 17 emerging market countries and excludes the so-called BRIC countries which currently represent over 40% of the parent MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Deborah Yang, Head of the MSCI Index Business in EMEA & India, said: “We have launched the MSCI EM Beyond BRIC Index in response to client demand and believe it offers a new way to track and evaluate the emerging markets opportunity set for those wishing to invest in countries outside the BRIC region.”
Goldman Sachs, Visa and Nike are to join the Dow Jones Industrial Average, arguably the world’s most famous stock market gauge. They will replace Bank of America, Hewlett-Packard and Alcoa after the close of trading on Friday, 20th September. A number of exchange-traded funds listed around the world will be affected by the change, the largest being the NYSE Arca-listed SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA), which has more than $11 billion in assets under management.