New Listings
Credit Suisse (CS) launched 45 ETFs on the London Stock Exchange. The ETFs track the performance of a broad range of indices, including European, North American and Japanese equity benchmarks (both small and large capitalisation), as well as emerging markets indices. There are also eight fixed income ETFs across a variety of maturity ranges, as well as funds tracking European and US government inflation protected bond benchmarks. While the majority of the funds use physical replication, 13 of them are swap-based ETFs tracking the performance of regional indices such as the MSCI EM Asia and MSCI EM Latin America, as well as a number of single-country emerging market indices. These funds have been simultaneously listed on the Borsa Italiana.
Amundi launched five ETFs on the Deutsche Borse. The funds consist of four equity-tracking products and one fixed income ETF. One fund tracks the S&P 500 with a total expense ratio (TER) of 0.15%, the lowest fee amongst ETFs tracking the index. The Amundi ETF NASDAQ 100 follows the technology-heavy benchmark and has a TER of 0.23%. The Amundi CAC 40 charges a TER of 0.25%. The Amundi EURO STOXX Small Cap ETF tracks the performance of small-capitalisation equities based in the Eurozone and has a TER of 0.3%. Finally, the Amundi ETF Ex-AAA Govt. Bond EuroMTS is a fixed income product which offers exposure to sub-AAA rated Eurozone sovereign debt. This fund levies a 0.14% TER.
ComStage launched four ETFs on the Deutsche Borse. The ETFs track UK equity indices. Two of them track variations on the FTSE 100 index, with one ETF offering the inverse daily performance of the index and the other leveraging the index’s daily returns two times. The other ETFs launched were the ComStage ETF FTSE 250 TR, which tracks the performance of the next 250 largest companies in the UK, and the ComStage ETF FTSE All-Share TR which tracks the performance of every company included in the London Stock Exchange's Main Market.
UBS launched six ETFs on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm. The new funds each track the performance of a different global, regional or single-country equity index, including the MSCI World (0.40% TER), MSCI Europe (0.30% TER), MSCI Pacific ex-Japan (0.40% TER), MSCI USA (0.30% TER), MSCI Japan (0.50% TER), and the EURO STOXX 50 (0.30% TER). The firm also plans to add to its ETF line-up in Sweden.
Best and Worst Performers for the week of September 13 - September 17
A number of commodity funds were again among the list of top performers for the week. Tin prices approached their all-time high -- set in mid-2008. Production cutbacks in Indonesia, which accounts for a third of global supply, as well as in the Republic of Congo, have pushed prices up in the face of strong demand and dwindling stockpiles. Cotton prices also jumped as the floods in Pakistan have cut output from one of the largest producers. Fears of a smaller-than-anticipated Chinese crop placed additional upward pressure on prices. Forecasters are also revisiting their estimates for the US corn harvest--which appear to have been overly optimistic given unfavourable weather conditions across much of the Midwestern US -- pushing prices upwards. Sugar prices extended their strong run from last week.
Another strong week for US equities pushed a market-volatility-linked ETF to the top of the list of the worst performers. Greek equities also reappeared on the list as concerns over the country’s finances continue to bob to the surface. Oil prices were hit as data from the US Energy Information Administration showed crude stocks were 7% above last year's levels.
