USA
One Belt, One Road is a Chinese government initiative aiming to build a new silk road through Central Asia and better connect China with its trading partners. China has pledged to pour more than $175bn into the project, hoping to improve its roads, ports and railways.
And there’s something in it for ETF issuers too. KraneShares has listed a fund that (OBOR) aims to get exposure to One Belt, One Road through the MSCI Global China Infrastructure Exposure Index. The index, as its name suggests, tracks companies that will be boosted by the project. Despite what common sense may have suggested, the index is not particularly china-heavy. Of the top 10 index constituents by weight, only two are Chinese business. The rest are either South Asian or East European.
iShares is listing two plain vanilla corporate bond tracker, which track US dollar-denominated investment-grade corporate bonds with long maturities. MLQD will track corporate bonds with 5-10 year maturities while LLQD will track long-term corporate bonds with maturities 10 years or greater.
Asia
Australia
Continuing in the Asian infrastructure theme, ETF Securities is listing a fund in Australia that will track global infrastructure. The index interprets infrastructure broadly. Major constituents include Singapore Airlines, Deutsche Post and Canada’s Telus Corporation.
ETF Securities will also be launching an AI tracker in Australia, which tracks the ROBO Global Robotics and Automation Index. The index has proved a popular outside the box option for issuers, and Samsung Kodex, iShares and the UK arm of ETF Securities all have products tracking it. This is the first fund to track this index in Australia.