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SAM and Dow Jones Indexes Launch DJSI Nordic Index
Pioneers in Sustainability Investing expand regional index offering
Nordic index meets institutional demand for focused regional sustainability benchmark
Strong platform to launch related products
November 30, 2010--SAM, the investment boutique focused exclusively on Sustainability Investing, and Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, today announced the launch of the Dow Jones Sustainability Nordic Index (DJSI Nordic). Out of the largest companies in the Nordic region by free-float market capitalization, the new index tracks the top 30% with regard to sustainability.
Designed to underlie financial products such as exchange-traded funds or mutual funds, the DJSI Nordic provides market participants with a reliable and independent sustainability benchmark for Nordic equities. The DJSI Nordic includes 29 sustainability leaders from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The index is calculated in EUR and USD and it will be rebalanced annually in September.
In keeping with all Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, the DJSI Nordic components are selected and weighted based on SAM’s systematic Corporate Sustainability Assessment, which analyzes company performance in terms of economic, environmental and social criteria. Specifically, the assessment looks at Nordic corporations in terms of general as well as industry-specific criteria such as energy use, corporate governance, climate change strategy, human resources development, stakeholder relations and knowledge management.
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Source: Dow Jones Indexes
Horizons AlphaPro Launches Innovative Gold Yield Fund
November 30, 2010--Jovian Capital Corporation and its subsidiary AlphaPro Management Inc., manager of the Horizons AlphaPro exchange-traded funds (the "ETFs"), are pleased to announce the filing of a final prospectus in respect of the initial public offering of units of the Horizons Gold Yield Fund (the "Fund") for a maximum offering size of $100 Million.
The offering is expected to close on or about December 20, 2010. The Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") has conditionally approved the listing of the Class A units under the symbol (HGY.UN), subject to fulfillment of the standard listing requirements of the TSX. The Fund offering comprises Class A and Class F Units (the "Units") priced at $10.00 per Unit.
The Fund's investment objectives are to provide holders of Units with: (i) exposure to the price of gold bullion hedged to the Canadian dollar, less the Fund's fees and expenses; and (ii) tax-efficient monthly distributions, initially expected to be $0.0542 per Unit ($0.65 per annum to yield 6.5% on the issue price of $10.00 per Unit). It is initially expected that monthly distributions received by investors will consist primarily of return of capital.
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Source: Jovian Capital Corporation; AlphaPro Management Inc.
iShares Launches Educational Campaign to Help Investors Choose Wisely Among ETFs
Publishes “ETF Checklist” Highlighting Five Factors Investors Should Consider Before Investing
November 30, 2010--BlackRock, Inc. today announced that its iShares® Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) business, the world’s largest manager of ETFs, is launching a campaign to assist investors in learning what to look for when selecting an ETF. The initial phase of the campaign is the publication of an Investor ETF Checklist and an accompanying educational video, both available on the iShares website
Investor interest in ETFs has grown dramatically, with $632 billion in new assets flowing into ETFs in nearly the past five years alone¹. During that time, 32 new ETF providers have entered the market and 839 new ETFs have been launched². This growth reflects the benefits ETFs offer as part of a diversified investment portfolio. However, investors should understand that not all ETFs are created equal.
Noel Archard, Head of US iShares Product at BlackRock, said, “ETFs offer investors attractive benefits both large and small, but investors need to take a close look under the hood when considering a particular ETF product to understand the key factors that will impact its total performance over time. Our campaign aims to assist investors in choosing wisely as they navigate the growing number and complexity of ETF products in the marketplace today.”
As a first step in this new campaign, iShares is offering an Investor ETF Checklist that identifies five factors that drive ETF total performance, and that investors should be aware of prior to investing in an ETF. These include:
•Exposure and Tracking Efficiency — Index ETFs are designed to track the performance of a given benchmark. Key considerations for investors include the reputation and quality of the index to which they seek exposure, how closely the ETF manager replicates the performance of that benchmark and the transaction costs incurred in doing so.
•Structure — Single class, stand-alone ETFs are generally able to insulate investors from certain costs created by other shareholders in the fund, tax efficient and transparent in holdings. But more ETFs are being launched that use other structures, such as a multi share class structure. While certain traditional mutual funds and multi class structures can be tax efficient as well, alternatives to a single class ETF may not provide all of the expected benefits of an ETF.
Total Costs — The low cost of ETFs is one factor that can make them an attractive investment vehicle. The annual expense ratio is one cost, but not the only one. Investors should factor in all costs associated with a given ETF, including trading costs, tax costs, and commission costs, among others.
Liquidity — ETFs offer investors the ability to buy or sell in real time, throughout the trading day. However, not all ETFs have the same level of liquidity, and less liquidity can raise trading costs or limit the ability of investors to trade when they want or in times of distress.
Manager’s Track Record — The experience of an ETF manager can be an important factor in its ability to deliver the optimal mix of returns, liquidity, tax efficiency and transparency to investors across all types of market environments. Some managers may have jumped on the ETF bandwagon without having a core competency in ETFs.
iShares plans to roll out additional educational tools to help investors understand how to select an ETF and to deepen their understanding on each of these factors in 2011.
Source: BlackRock
PowerShares to List Four Financial Sector ETFs Based on KBW Indexes on NYSE Arca December 2, 2010
November 30, 2010--Media Advisory
What:PowerShares four new financial sector ETF portfolios
Who:Executive interviews
Benjamin Fulton, Managing Director of Global ETFs, Invesco PowerShares
John Howard, Co-head of research at KBW
Where:Telephone Interviews
When:December 1-3, 2010
Topics:
1. PowerShares KBW Financial Sector ETFs
PowerShares KBW Premium Yield Equity REIT Portfolio (KBWY)
PowerShares KBW High Dividend Yield Financial Portfolio (KBWD)
PowerShares KBW International Financial Portfolio (KBWX)
PowerShares KBW Property & Casualty Insurance Portfolio (KBWP)
2. What’s next for ETFs in 2011?
For media interviews please contact Bill Conboy or Dustin Weeden at 303-415-2290, bill@bccapitalpartners.com or dustin@bccapitalpartners.com. For additional information please visit, www.invescopowershares.com/kbw.
Source: Invesco PowerShares Capital Management LLC,
First Trust files with the SEC
November 29, 2010--First Trust has filed a post effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for First Trust AlphaDEX ETFs.
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Source: SEC.gov
Morgan Stanley Exchange-Traded Funds International Equity: EM Allocation Update
November 29, 2010--Introduction
Morgan Stanley & Co.’s Global Emerging Market (EM) Strategy team, led by Jonathan Garner, maintains an EMbased
country allocation model. The model seeks to outperform the MSCI EM Index over a six- to 12-month time
horizon. This model might be attractive to investors seeking exposure to EM equities tilted toward favorite countries. Investors who are more aggressive may utilize the model’s
overweight and underweight recommendations to go long or short a particular country.
For more details on the
methodology Garner uses to construct his model, please see his May 18, 2007 and June 25, 2009 notes.
Varieties of investment vehicles are available to implement the EM country allocation model. However, we believe ETFs offer significant advantages due to their trading flexibility, diversification, relatively low cost, tax efficiency and transparency.
Garner maintains a cautious tactical view for EM equities. Strong EM outperformance, relative to developed markets, combined with technical signals and fund flows starting to indicate an overbought market lead to Garner’s more cautious near-term outlook for EM. Consistent with his view and recent changes to the inflation outlook, which carry risks to equity performance, by Morgan Stanley & Co.’s Asia economics team, Garner updated several relative model weights, which effectively reduced the model’s aggregate risk position from 725 bps to 385 bps. We note that Garner’s recent changes result in a 10% increase to the core MSCI EM ETF component of our optimized ETF model.
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Source: ETF Research-Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley Exchange-Traded Funds: US ETF Weekly Update
November 29, 2010--Highlights
Weekly Flows: $4.1 Billion Net Inflows
ETFsTraded $214 Billion Last Week
No ETF Launches
Eaton Vance Purchases ETF Developer
US-Listed ETFs: Estimated Flows by Market Segment
ETFs bounced back last week, posting net inflows of $4.1 billion
US Small-& Micro-Cap ETFs took in the most new money, generating net inflows of $2.5 blnlast week
ETF assets stand at $941 bln; up 21% YTD
13-week flows were mostly positive among asset classes
$50.3 bln net inflows into ETFs over past 13 weeks (57% into EM& US Large-Cap Equity)
We estimate ETFs have posted net inflows 34 out of 47 weeks YTD
US-Listed ETFs: Estimated Largest Flows by Individual ETF
Vanguard Mid-Cap ETF (VO) posted net inflows of $1.3 blnlast week, the most of any ETF
Mid-and Small-Cap ETFs occupied 6 of the top 10 spots for largest net inflows last week
For the second straight week, SPY posted outflows; but over 13-wk period has taken in most new money
US-Listed ETFs: ETF Dollar Volume
Market share of monthly ETF volume as % of listed volume has doubled over 5 yrs
Amid shortened trading week, ETFsposted lightest trading week since September
US Large-Cap ETFsaccount for majority of weekly trading volume (43% market share)
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Source: ETF Research-Morgan Stanley
Citi Wins Mandate to Provide Securities Lending Services for Global X Funds Exchange Traded Funds
November 29, 2010--)--Citi today announced that it has won a mandate to provide third-party securities lending services for Global X Funds’ family of exchange traded funds.
Citi provided the right combination of leading expertise, risk management capabilities and flexibility to tailor its securities lending program to the specific characteristics and requirements of Global X Funds,” says Bruno Del Ama, CEO, Global X Funds. “The global reach of Citi’s transaction services business is a great complement to our global asset management business.”
Added Neeraj Sahai, Global Head, Securities and Fund Services, Citi: “We greatly look forward to strengthening our relationship with Global X Funds by leveraging our capabilities both across Securities and Fund Services and across the entire Citi enterprise.”
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Source: Citi
Claymore Securities Launches ETF Suite Tracking The Wilshire 5000SM, Wilshire 4500 And Wilshire US REIT Indexes
November 29, 2010--Claymore Securities, Inc. today announced the launch of an ETF suite designed to track three of Wilshire Associates’ broad market indexes: the Wilshire 5000 Total Market ETF (NYSE Arca: WFVK), the Wilshire 4500 Completion ETF (NYSE Arca: WXSP), and the Wilshire US REIT ETF (NYSE Arca: WREI). The Wilshire Indexes, developed by Wilshire Associates Incorporated, (“Wilshire ®”), a global independent investment and consulting services firm, have been in existence for more than 35 years and are used extensively by institutional and active money managers as performance benchmarks.
“This is an exciting addition to our growing portfolio of ETF products, extending our line-up into broad-based domestic equities.” commented William Belden, Managing Director, Claymore Securities, Inc. “Leveraging the expertise of Wilshire and their widely followed indexes, investors now have an opportunity to access the U.S. equity and REIT markets with the inherent benefits of ETF investing—efficiency, transparency and flexibility.”
“We are delighted to be working with Claymore to launch these products,” said Dennis A. Tito, founder Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Wilshire Associates who is credited with developing the Wilshire 5000 in 1974 “Utilizing Wilshire’s investment technology and performance measurement heritage, we created the Wilshire 5000 index as a tool for our institutional investment professionals and their clients to measure, understand and explain the market. Each index developed since that time was created to measure a specific section of the securities market in a way that was meaningful for investors,” he noted.
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Source: Claymore Securities
Emerging Markets Week in Review -11/22/2010 - 11/26/2010
November 29, 2010--The Dow Jones Emerging Markets Sector Titans Composite Index slid 2.35% last week on concerns that a bailout of Ireland will fail to cure Europe's debt crisis and North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire.
Technology and Consumer, the two best performing sectors this year, declined the least, falling 0.40% and 1.09% respectively. Financials and Industrials were down the most after declining by 3.99% and 3.90% respectively.
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Source: Emerging Global Advisors
