ETF News Archive

EGS Introduces Brazil Infrastructure Fund

Emerging Global Shares recently launched the Brazil Infrastructure Index Exchange-Traded Fund (NYSE: BRXX), the first ETF focused solely on the infrastructure sector in Brazil. The Fund invests in 30 of the largest publicly traded companies dedicated to the infrastructure industry in Brazil.

The Brazil Infrastructure Index has an average market capitalization of $11.7 billion and the Fund charges a net expense ratio of 0.85%.

PowerShares Lists First ETF Portfolio of Closed-End Funds

The PowerShares CEF Income Composite Portfolio (PCEF) is the first ETF designed to provide investors access to a portfolio of closed-end funds.

The fund tracks the overall performance of a global universe of U.S.-listed closed-end funds. The index currently includes 71 closed-end funds, of which 27 invest primarily in taxable investment-grade fixed-income securities, 15 invest primarily in high-yield fixed-income securities and 29 primarily use an equity option writing (selling) strategy.

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Van Eck Launches Egypt ETF

Van Eck Global has launched the Market Vectors Egypt Index ETF (EGPT), the first U.S.-based exchange-traded fund to provide focused exposure to Egypt’s economy.

According to Van Eck management, the new fund addresses a growing interest in using individual country funds to calibrate international equity allocations, particularly on the part of investors dissatisfied with existing indices.

The investment case for Egypt is a solid one.  Egypt’s real economic growth has averaged 4.9 percent annually since the start of the last decade and 6.3 percent for the three years ending December 31, 2009.  Egypt’s move to a more open, market-oriented economy has, in turn, led to expanding foreign investment, net exports, industrial development, and business formation.  The most populous Arab country and the third most populous country in Africa, Egypt is home to an in

China Infrastructure ETF Starts Trading

Emerging Global Shares has launched the China Infrastructure Index Exchange-Traded Fund (CHXX), the first ETF focused solely on the infrastructure sector in China.

The fund invests in 30 of the largest publicly traded companies dedicated to the infrastructure industry in that country, and is designed to track the performance of the INDXX China Infrastructure Index.

The fund provides investors with exposure to China which has made enormous progress in their infrastructure development, but still has literally decades of infrastructure build-outs and ongoing maintenance ahead of them to keep pace with their economic and population expansion.

The China Infrastructure Index has an average market capitalization of $8.3 billion and the Fund charges a net expense ratio of 0.85%.

The top five industry weightings of the Index, as of 2/1/10, are Real Es

ProShares Adds 3x Funds for 4 Indicies

ProShares has expanded its line-up of 3x funds with the launch of eight ETFs tied to four major indicies.

The NASDAQ-100, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P MidCap 400 and Russell 2000 will each have exchange traded funds that offer daily 3x and -3x exposure.

The new funds include UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ), UltraPro Short QQQ (SQQQ), UltraPro Dow30 (UDOW), UltraPro Short Dow30 (SDOW), UltraPro MidCap400 (UMDD), UltraPro Short MidCap400 (SMDD), UltraPro Russell2000 (URTY) and UltraPro Short Russell2000 (SRTY).

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Fidelity Joins Schwab in Offering Commission-Free ETFs

Fidelity has introduced commission free trading of 25 iShares ETFs.

The move comes in the wake of Schwab's introduction of no-commission exchange traded funds.  In addition, Fidelity has lowered U.S.

WisdomTree to Hedge Japan ETF

WisdomTree announced that the WisdomTree Japan Total Dividend Fund (DXJ) will begin to hedge Japanese yen exposure.

DXJ will provide the same broad exposure to the Japanese equity market but will seek to neutralize fluctuations in the yen against the U.S. dollar.  The change will be effective after the close of business on March 31, 2010.

WisdomTree managers point out that many investors believe that the Japanese equity markets have performed poorly recently because their exporting companies have been significantly plagued by the strength of the Japanese yen.

iShares Introduces 5 International Sector ETFs

iShares recently introduced several ETFs that focus on International sectors.

The new exchange traded funds include:

iShares MSCI ACWI ex US Financials Sector Index Fund (AXFN)

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Financials Sector Index Fund (EMFN)

iShares MSCI Europe Financials Sector Index Fund (EUFN)

iShares MSCI Far East Financials Sector Index Fund (FEFN) and the

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ProShares Expands Leveraged Treasury ETF Offerings

Two new ETFs that provide leveraged exposure to long term treasuries were recently launched by ProShares.
The ProShares Ultra 20+ Year Treasury (UBT) is targeted to deliver investment results that correspond to twice (200%) the performance of the Barclays Capital 20+ Year U.S. Treasury Index for a single day.  The performance benchwork excludes fees, expenses and interest income.
ProShares Ultra 7-10 Year Treasury (UST) seeks investment results that correspond to twice (200%) the performance of the Barclays Capital 7-10 Year U.S.

Equal Sector Investing Outperforms Again

Equal sector investing, a strategy in which a portfolio is divided equally among the economic sectors of the market, beat the returns of the S&P 500 in 2009 for the 10th year in a row according to ALPS Distributors.

“Most equal-weight strategies are based at the stock level,” states Jeremy Held, Director of Investment Strategy and Research for ALPS Distributors, Inc. “Equal sector investing is an important extension of the equal-weight concept in that it addresses sector risk, which may be a much more important and fundamental risk to client portfolios than individual stocks.”

According to Held, the out-performance of an equal sector strategy is partially attributable to its risk management characteristics. Over the last 30 years the largest annual declines in the S&P 500 were precipitated by a crash in the market’s largest sector. In 1981, it was Energy stocks. In 2000, it was Technology.