S&P Dow Jones Indices has partnered with sustainable investing specialist RobecoSAM to launch a new index family targeting positive environmental, social and corporate governance exposures on a global and regional scale. The S&P ESG Index Series is based on existing S&P Indices. The indices measure the performance of companies in their respective underlying index with a weighting scheme based on ESG factor scores derived from RobecoSAM’s annual Corporate Sustainability Assessment. Banerjee, Managing Director, Head of Product Management at SPDJI, said in a statement: “Sustainability issues can be sources of substantial risks but equally, substantial opportunities.”

ETFs investing in sector-specific portfolios of equities may present significant advantages to investors who are looking for an efficient means to place tactical bets during earnings season. It is common to see heightened trading activity in equity markets during this time as traders attempt to capitalise on the large influx of new information to the market. Earnings season is the period of time during which a large number of publicly traded companies release their quarterly earnings reports. In general, each earnings season begins one or two weeks after the last month of each quarter (December, March, June and September). Chris Beauchamp, Senior Market Analyst, IG Group, commented: “Using these ETFs to play earnings season takes advantage of the key features of ETFs, namely their low costs.”

Assets in European listed exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products hit a record high of $522bn in the first three months of the year, according to data from consultancy ETFGI. The figure helped boost global ETF/ETP assets return above the $3tn mark for only the second time, having first done so at the end of May last year. Net new assets in March hit $45.3bn globally marking the 26th consecutive month of net inflows. In Europe, the largest portion of investor money [$6.18bn] went into fixed income and commodities [$1.10bn]. However, these figures were offset by outflows from equity ETFs/ETPs of $2.29bn.

European ETF provider Source has released research suggesting there is a growing need for innovative approaches to income investing that address issues such as the quality and sustainability of dividends. More than 61% of institutional investors anticipate that dividends from UK companies will stay the same or decline this year when compared to 2015, according to survey results of 77 institutional investors. Dr. Chris Mellor, Executive Director, Equity Product Management at Source, commented: “Finding quality stocks that pay attractively consistent dividends is becoming much more challenging. Given this, we teamed up with Research Affiliates, the market leaders in smart beta, to develop a suite of ETFs that addresses this growing issue.”

Companies that have a low gap between their highest paid executives and the average worker’s salary have higher-than-average profit margins, according to research from global index provider MSCI. The data comes amid increased interest in SRI (Socially Responsible Investing) and ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) investing – a growing area of ETF product development.

S&P Dow Jones Indices has launched the first carbon emitter scorecard amid rising interest in the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) sector as investors look at how they can impact climate change. On its debut, the S&P Index Carbon Emitter Scorecard, which is based on the S&P Global 1200, found that only 15% of global emissions are directly produced by the world’s blue-chip organisations. The scorecard analyses carbon production and efficiency for major indices and styles across global markets. Tim Edwards, Senior Director of Index Investment Strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement: “Our S&P Index Carbon Emitter Scorecard helps to frame the importance of corporate and investor participation in the efforts to limit carbon emissions.”

Index provider Stoxx has introduced a fixed income equivalent of its flagship equity index. The newly launched Euro Stoxx 50 Corporate Bond Index tracks the corporate debt of the constituents of Euro Stoxx 50, an index of the 50 largest blue-chip companies in the Eurozone. The index has been designed to act as an underlying for exchange-traded funds and derivatives. “We now translate the success factors of our flagship index to the bonds market, by creating the Euro Stoxx 50 Corporate Bond Index which enables market participants to measure the performance of bonds issued by companies of the Euro Stoxx 50. This link allows a consistent analysis of the bond and equity market in the Eurozone,” said Matteo Andreetto, chief executive officer, Stoxx.

First Trust, a US-based provider of exchange-traded funds, will move all 12 of its AlphaDEX smart beta ETFs from the NYSE to Nasdaq exchange on 8 April 2016. Following the switch, all ETFs will change index provider from S&P and begin tracking Nasdaq indices. The funds will maintain their original ticker codes but their respective indices will be rebranded to reflect the change in provider. Commenting on the benefits to both parties, Dave Gedeon, Head of Research & Development, Nasdaq Global Indices, commented: “Part of the conversation is aligning the ETF provider and index provider such that they have a joint belief in the product and use opportunities like this to deepen the relationship.”

US-based exchange-traded fund provider REX Shares has launched two new gold hedged equity funds, giving investors an efficient way to add gold exposure to broad equity holdings. The ETFs provide exposure to US equities and emerging-markets equities, while offering long exposure to the gold price through the use of futures contracts. The REX Gold Hedged S&P 500 ETF (NYSE Arca: GHS) and the REX Gold Hedged FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (NYSE Arca: GHE) are listed on NYSE Arca. Greg King, Founder and CEO of REX Shares, commented: “Our new ETFs allow them (investors) an unprecedented type of access to the movements in the price of gold without asking them to choose between gold or stocks.”

TD Asset Management (TDAM) has become the latest asset manager in Canada to launch exchange-traded funds. The firm has unveiled six ETFs, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, that track the performance of Canadian fixed income markets as well as Canadian, US and international equities. The continual entrance of new firms into the ETF space as fund providers is reflective of the momentum behind the ETF industry, as measured by assets under management. Last year a record number of ETF providers entered the US market and the global exchange-traded product industry attracted $370bn in net new assets, according to ETF industry consultant ETFGI.