HuaAn Asset Management has introduced the HuaAn Germany DAX 30 ETF, China’s first locally domiciled exchange-traded fund to provide exposure to the DAX Index. The ETF, which has been listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, means Chinese investors can now access the performance of leading German companies for the first time. Li Qing, CEO of HuaAn, said: “[The fund] opens the door to invest in Germany and EU for China investors. The era of global asset allocation has come to China, and HuaAn aims to be the leading asset management company at home and abroad.”

Boost ETP, a specialist provider of short and leveraged exchange-traded products, has entered the German market with the launch of four products on the Deutsche Börse (Xetra). The London-headquartered provider, which was recently acquired by US ETF giant WisdomTree, is also active on the London Stock Exchange in the UK and Borsa Italiana in Italy. “Boost is very proud to be listing four new ETPs in Germany,” said Hector McNeil, Co-CEO of Boost ETP. “Having already assisted with the launch of short and leverage ETCs in Germany in the past, Boost’s founders look forward to continuing their relationship with the German market.”

London-based exchange-traded fund provider Source and investment bank Morgan Stanley have teamed to launch the Source Morgan Stanley Europe MEMO Plus UCITS ETF (EMSE), an ETF which aims to outperform the broad European equity market by exploiting one of the most persistent patterns in equity markets – the so-called “month-end effect”. Listed on the Deutsche Börse, the strategy combines continuous exposure to European equities with additional exposure, of 2x leverage, around month-end. In simulations over the past 13 years, the strategy has outperformed the MSCI Europe Index by an average 6.0% per annum.

Lyxor, Europe’s third largest provider of exchange-traded funds, has announced that three of its largest ETFs are to be converted to physical replication. The ETFs in question are linked to the CAC 40, IBEX 35 and DAX indices and have approximately €5 billion in assets. Arnaud Llinas, global head of ETFs and indexing at Lyxor, said: “Our strategy is to offer our clients the most efficient ETFs by selecting the most appropriate replication method for each index. We believe we can now offer a better product on the CAC 40, IBEX 35 and DAX by using a direct replication method”.

Investment giant BlackRock, the world’s largest provider of exchange-traded funds, has rolled out a European version of its popular “iShares Core” series. The series, which consists of 14 ETFs, is designed to provide European investors with low cost access to some of the core portfolio building blocks most favoured by investors across the continent. The introduction of the European series follows the launch of similar product suites in the US in 2012 and in Canada earlier this year, and comes on the back of impressive growth and evolution in the region’s ETF market.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM) has expanded its range of “core” ETFs with the launch of a physically replicated exchange-traded fund tracking the MSCI USA Index. Listed on the Deutsche Börse, the db x-trackers MSCI USA Index UCITS ETF (DR) (XD9U) provides exposure to the US large and mid-cap equities market. Simon Klein, DeAWM’s Head of Exchange Traded Product Sales, EMEA and Asia, said: “Our new ETF tracking the MSCI USA Index for a fee of just nine basis points has already attracted over $200 million in investment prior to listing.”

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM) has become one of Europe’s largest providers of physical replication exchange-traded funds following the completion of an ambitious programme to convert 18 synthetic ETFs into physical format. Simon Klein, DeAWM’s Head of Exchange Traded Product Sales, EMEA and Asia, said: “The switching of such a large raft of ETFs to physical replication in such a short timeframe is unprecedented, but the uptick in demand we’ve registered in the first quarter demonstrates that this was the correct strategy.”

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM) is to create a range of low cost, physically replicated exchange-traded funds linked to the DAX, FTSE 100, EuroStoxx 50, and MSCI USA indices, featuring total expense ratios of just 0.09% per annum. Reinhard Bellet, DeAWM’s Head of Passive Asset Management, said: “With this range of low TER ETFs we aim not just to enhance our offering to current investors, but also to broaden our investor base. The combination of low TERs, intraday liquidity, visibility and transparency offered by our ETFs should make them appeal to an even wider cross-section of the investor community.”

Market Vectors ETFs, a US-based provider of exchange-traded funds, has announced that the Market Vectors Uranium+Nuclear Energy ETF (NLR), a fund providing equity market exposure to the global uranium and nuclear industries, is to change its underlying index. The fund, which is listed on the NYSE Arca and has almost $80 million in assets, is currently linked to the DAXglobal Nuclear Energy Index. Effective on or about March 21, 2014, the fund will drop this index and instead begin tracking the Market Vectors Global Uranium & Nuclear Energy Index.

Boost, a London-headquartered provider of short and leveraged exchange-traded products, has made an impressive debut on Borsa Italiana, with its products capturing a significant portion of the exchange’s ETP trading volumes. Hector McNeil, Co-CEO of Boost, commented: “For the second week running Boost’s products have set the pace on the Borsa Italiana. All our recent listed products, most notably three times short and leverage ETPs tracking FTSE MIB and natural gas, have seen significant rises in trading volumes.”