UBS has launched the UBS MSCI Europe UCITS hedged to EUR ETF (EUREUA) on Borsa Italiana, providing exposure to approximately 85% of the market capitalization across 15 developed markets in Europe while hedging currency risk relative to the euro.

The MSCI Europe ETF represents the performance of large and mid-cap equities across 15 developed countries in Europe.

The move follows the recent launch on Deutsche Börse’s Xetra and Frankfurt exchanges.

The underlying index, the MSCI Europe 100% Hedged to EUR Total Return Index, provides currency hedged exposure to the MSCI Europe Index which represents the performance of large and mid-cap equities across 15 developed countries in Europe including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It covers approximately 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in each country.

As of the end of June, the UK (27.7%) represents the largest country exposure followed by France (16.5%), Germany (14.9%) and Switzerland (13.3%).

European equities are enjoying a strong bull run in 2017 with the index gaining 15.9% in the first half of the year, compared to 11.0% for the MSCI World Index.

The largest sector weights of the index are financials (21.1%), consumer staples (14.2%), industrials (13.5%), healthcare (13.1%) and consumer discretionary (10.5%). There are over 400 constituents in the index of which the largest is Nestle with a 3.1% weight.

The ETF utilises a monthly currency hedge, minimizing the exchange rate risk between various non-euro currency exposures within the portfolio (including the British pound, Swedish krona, Swiss franc, Norwegian krone, Danish krone and the euro) and the euro.

The ETF’s total expense ratio (TER) is 0.30%.

UBS also offers the UBS MSCI Europe UCITS ETF (LON: UB12) which provides unhedged exposure to the MSCI Europe Index. It is listed on Borsa Italiana, Deutsche Börse, Euronext Amsterdam and SIX Swiss Exchange, where it trades in euros, or on London Stock Exchange where it trades in British pounds. The fund has €270m in AUM and a TER of 0.20%.