Americas
MSCI may have included Chinese A shares in its indexes but iShares will still give investors the choice.
The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ex-China ETF (EMXC), listed today in the US, is made up of mid and large cap companies from every single one of what MSCI defines as “emerging markets” - with the exception of China. The new ETF complements the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF which does include China.
Asia
China Southern Asset Management has listed a new ETF in Shanghai, that tracks the CSI All Share Real Estate Index (512203). The ETF market in China is small and indexed investing is not ipso facto cheaper than active alternatives due to the scarcity of Chinese A shares.
Europe
BNP Paribas has launched an ETF in Paris that lives up to the hype, the BNP Paribas Easy High Yield Europe Defensive (HYPE). HYPE tracks an index of high yield European corporate bonds. The index it tracks has an in-built option writing strategy to hedge the risk that comes with the higher yielding bonds.
Lyxor has listed two new bond tracking ETFs in Italy: the BofAML USD Short Term High Yield Bond EUR Monthly Hedged UCITS ETF (HYSTH) and Lyxor BofAML € Short Term High Yield Bond UCITS ETF (HYS). HYSTH and HYS are both synthetic and use currency hedges in tracking higher yield short term corporate bonds.
UBS has launched two new world ETFs in Switzerland, targeting Japan and Canada. The UBS ETF - MSCI Canada UCITS ETF (CANA) is made up heavily of Canadian banks, including rival ETF issuer BMO. The UBS ETF-MSCI Japan UCITS ETF (JPNA) is exposed heavily to Japanese manufacturers, such as Mitsubishi, Toyota and Sony.
Commodities specialist ETF Securities has launched two new commodities ETFs in London: the ETFS All Commodities GO UCITS ETF, which listed in both GBP and USD (BCOG, BCOM). The underlying index is made up of 22 commodities, including precious and industrial metals, petrol and gas, and food stocks like wheat.